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THE
V
LAST JUDGMENT,
AND THE
BABYLON DESTROYED:
SO THAT ALL
THE PREDICTIONS IN THE APOCALYPSE ARE AT THIS DAY
FULFILLED.
FROM
THINGS HEARD AND SEEN.
TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF
EMANUEL SWEDEN BO RG
BOSTON:
OTIS CLAPP, WASHINGTON STREET.
1840.
OF
THE LAST JUDGMENT,
AND
THE BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED.
I -
THAT THE DAY OF THE LAST JUDGMENT DOES NOT
MEAN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD.
1. They who have been unacquainted with the spiritual
sense of the Word, have always understood that all things
in the visible world will be destroyed in the day of the last
judgment; for it is said, that heaven and earth are then to
perish, and that God will create a new heaven and a new
earth: in which opinion they have also confirmed them*
selves because it is said, that all men are then to rise from
their graves, and that the good are then to be separated
from the evil, with more to the same purport: but it is thus
expressed in the literal sense of the Word, because this
sense of the Word is natural, and in the ultimate of divine
order, of which the whole and every part contains a spiritual
sense within it: for which reason, he who comprehends the
Word only according to the sense of the letter, may be led
into various opinions, as actually is the case in the Christian
world, where so many heresies exist from this ground, and
every one of them is confirmed from the Word. But since
no one has hitherto known, that in the whole, and in every
part of the Word there is a spiritual sense, nor even what a
spiritual sense is, therefore they who have embraced this
opinion concerning the last judgment, are pardonable. But
still they may now know, that neither the visible heaven nor
the habitable earth will perish, but that both will remain for*
ever; and that by a new heaven and a new earth is to be
understood a new church, both in the heavens and on the
earth: it is said a new church in the heavens, for there is
a church in the heavens, as well as on the earth; for there
1
4 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
also is the Word, and likewise preachings, and divine wor-
ship like that on the earth; yet with a difference, that ail
these things are in a more perfect state, because they are
not in the natural world, but in the spiritual; hence all who
dwell there are spiritual men, and not natural as they were
in the world. That it is so, may be seen in the work'*on
Heaven, in a special article, on the conjunction of heaven
with man by the Word. n. 303 to 310; and on divine wor-
ship in heaven, n. 221 to 227.
2. The passages in the Word, in which mention is made of
the destruction of heaven and earth, are the following:
*' Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the land be-
neath: the heavens are about to perish like smoke, and the
land shall wax old like a garment." Isaiah li. 6. '' Behold,
I am about to create new heavens, and a new earth ; neither
shall former things be remembered." Isai. Ixv. 17. "I
will make new heavens and a new earth." Isai. Ixvi. 22.
*^ The stars of heaven have fallen to the earth, and heaven
has departed like a scroll rolled together." Rev. vi. 13, 14.
'* I saw a great throne, and one silting thereon, from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away, and their place
was not found." Rev. xx. 11. *' I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away.'* Rev. xxi. 1. In these passages, by a new heaven
is not meant a visible heaven, but the very heaven where
the human race is assembled; for a heaven was formed
from all the human race, who had lived since the commence-
ment of the Christian church ; but they who were in it were
not angels, but spirits of various religions; this heaven is
understood by the first heaven which was to perish; but
how'this was, shall be specially declared in what follows;
here is related only so much as serves to show what is meant
by the first heaven which was to perish. Every one even,
who thinks from a somewhat enlightened reason, may per-
ceive, that it is not the starry heaven, the so immense fir-
mament of creation, which is here meant, but that it is
heaven in a spiritual sense, where angels and spirits are.
3. That a new earth (^or land) means a new church on
earth, has hitherto been unknown, for every one by land in
the Word has understood the land, when yet . by land is
meant the church; in a natural sense, land is the land, but
in a spiritual sense it is the church, because they who are
in the spiritual sense, that is, who are spiritual, as the angels
are, when land is named in the Word, do not understand
the land itself, but the nation which is there, and its Divine
worship; hence it is that by land is signified the church;
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 6
that it is so, may be seen in the Arcana GcelestiA) as
quoted below/
I will here adduce one or two passages from the Word,
by which in some measure it may be comprehended, that
the land signifies the church. '* The cataracts from on
high were opened, and the foundations of the land were
shaken; in breaking, the land is broken; in agitating, the
land is agitated; in reeling, the land reels like a drunkard;
it moves to and fro like a cottage; and heavy upon it is the
transgression thereof." Isai. xxiv. 18, 19, 20, "I will
cause a man to be more rare than pure gold; therefore I
will remove the heaven, and the land shall be removed out
of her place, in the day of the fierce anger of Jehovah."
Isai. xiii. 12, 13. '^ The land was agitated before him, the
heavens have trembled, the sun and the moon are become
black, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor." Joel ii.
10. ** The land was shaken and agitated, and the founda-
tions of the mountains trembled and were shaken/* Psalm
xviii. 7, 8; and in many other places.
4. Creating, moreover, in the spiritual sense of the Word,
signifies to form, to establish, and to regenerate; so that
creating a new heaven and a new earth signifies to establish
a New Church in heaven and on earth; as may appear from
the following passages: ''The people who shall be created
shall praise Jab." Fsalm cii. 18. ** Thou sendest forth the
» From the Arcana C<ele«tta. That by land in the Word is signified
the kingdom of the Lord and the church, n. 66d, 1066, 1067, 126^, 1413,
1607, 2928, 3355, 4447, 4635, 5577, 801 J, 9325, 9643. Chiefly for this
reason, because by land is understood the land of Canaan, and the
church was there from the most ancient times; hence also it is, that
heaven is called the heavenly Canaan, n. 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516,
4517, 5136, 6516, 9325, 9327. And because in a spiritual sense by land
is understood the nation wh'ch is there, and its worship, n. 1262. That
hence the land signifies various things pertaining to the church, n. 620,
6.S6, 1067, 2571, 3308, 3379, 3404, 8732. That the people of the land
are they who belong to the spiritual church, n. 2928. That an earth«
quake is a change of the state of the church, n. 3355. That a new
heavenr and a new earth signify a church, n. 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118,
3355, 4535, 10373.
That the most ancient church, which was before the flood, and the
ancient church which was after the flood, were in the land of Canaan,
n. 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 6136, 6516, 9327. That thence all
the places there became representative of such things as are in the
Lord's kingdom and in the church, n. 1505,3686, 4447, 5136. That
therefore Abraham was commanded to go thither, since among his pos-
terity from Jacob, a representative church was to be instituted, and h
Word written, whose ultimate sense should consist of the representatives
and signiflcatives which were there, n. 368(), 4447, 5136, 6516. Hence
it ii that by land and by the land of Canaan is signified the church, n.
8038, 3481, 3705,4447, 4517, 5757, 10658.
6 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the faces of the
land." Psalm civ. 30. ** Thus said Jehovah, thy creator O
Jacob, thy former O Israel, for I have redeemed thee, and I
have called thee by thy name, thou art mine: every one
called by my name, and for my glory I have created, I have
formed him, yea I have made him," Isaiah xliii. 1,7; and
in other places: hence it is, that the new creation of man is
his reformation, since he is made anew, that is, from natural
he is made spiritual; and hence it is that a new creature is
a reformed man.**
5, Concerning' the spiritual sense of the Word, the small
work on the White Horse, mentioned in the Apocalypse,
may be consulted.
THAT THE PROCREATIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE ON THE
EARTH WILL NEVER CEASE.
6. They who have adopted as their belief concerning the
last judgment, that all things in the heavens and on the
earth are then to perish, and that a new heaven and a new
earth will become extant in their place, believe, because it
follows of consequence, that the generations and procrea-
tions of the human race are thenceforth to cease; for they
think that all things will be then accomplished, and that
man's future state will be quite different from his former
one : but since the day of the last judgment does not mean
the destruction of the world, as was shewn in the preceding
article, it also follows that the human race will continue,
and that procreations will never cease.
7. That the procreations of the human race will continue
to eternity, is plain from many considerations, of which
some are adduced in the work on Heaven, and of which
the following are the principal: —
I. That the human race is the basis on which heaven is
founded.
II. That the human race is the seminary of heaven.
III. That the extension of heaven, which is for angels, is
so immense, that it cannot be filled to eternity.
IV. That they are but few respectively, of whom heaven
at present is formed.
b That to create is to create anew, or to reform and regenerate, n. 16,
88, 10373, 10634. That to create a new heaven and a new earth, is to
institute a new church, n. 10373. That by the creation of heaven and
earth in the beginning of Genesis, in the internal sense, is described the
institution of the celestial, which was the most ancient church, n. 8891,
9942, 10545.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEBN DESTROYED. 7
V. That the perftsction of heaven increases according to
plurality.
VI. And that every Divine work has respect to Infinity
and Eternity.
9. That the humcm race is the basis on which heaven is
founded^ is because man was created, in the ultimate, and
th«it which is created in the uhimate is the basis of all that '
precedes. Creation commenced from the supreme or inmost,
because from the Divine; and proceeded to ultimates or ex-
tremes, and then first subsisted; The ultinuite of creation
is the natural world, including the terraqueous globe, with
all things on it. When these were finished, then man was
created, and into him were collated all things of Divine or-
der from first to last ; into his inmost were collated those
things of that order which are primary; and into his ulti-
mates those which are ultimate ; so that man was made Di-
vine order in form: hence it is that all things in man and
with man, are both from heaven and from the world, those
of his mind from heaven, and those of his body from the
world ; for the things of heaven inflow into his thoughts and
affecliona, and dispose them according to reception by his
spirit, and the things of the world inflow into his sensations
and pleasures, and dispose them according to reception in
his body, but still in accommodation to their agreement with
the thoughts and affections of his spirit. That it is so, may
be seen in several articles in the work on Heaven and Hell,
especially in the following: That the universal heaven, in
one eomplex, has reference to one man. n. 59 to 67. That
every society in heaven has the like. n. 68 to 72. That
hence every angel is in a perfect human form. n. 73 to 77.
And that this is from the Divine Human of the Lord. n. 78
to 86. And moreover under the article of the correspon-
dence of all things of heaven with all of man. n. 87 to 1 12.
Of the correspondence of heaven with all things on earth.
B. 103 to i\^. And of the form of heaven, n. 200 to 212.
From the above order of creation it may appear, that such
is the binding chain of connection from first to last, that all
things together make one, in which the prior cannot be sep-
•rated from the posterior (just as a cause cannot be separa-
ted from its effect:) and that thus the spiritual world cannot
be separated from the natural, nor the natural world from
the spiritual: nor the angelic heaven from the human race,
Dor the human race from the angelic heaven; wherefore it
is provided by the Lord, that each shall afford a mutual as^
sistance to the other, that is the angelic heaven to the hu-
man race, and the human race to the angelic heaven. Hende
1*
8 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
it is, that the angelic mansions are indeed in heaven, and to
appearance separate from the mansion of men, and yet are
with man in his affections of good and truth; their presen-
tation to sight, as separate, is hut an appearance; as may
be seen in an article in the work on Heaven and Hell,
where space in heaven is treated of. n. 19 1 to 199. That
the mansions of angels are with men in their affections of
good and truth, is understood by these words of the Lord,
"He who loveth me, keepeth my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will Come unto him, and make our
mansion with him." John xiv. 25; by the Father and the
Lord in the above passage is also signified heaven, for where
the Lord is, there is heaven, since the Divine Proceeding
from the Lord makes heaven, as may be seen in the work
on Heaven and Hell, n. 7 to 12; and n. 116 to 125. And
likewise by these words of the Lord, " The Comforter the
Spirit of truth abideth with you, and is in you." John xiv. 17;
the Comforter is Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord,
for which reason he is also called the Spirit of Truth, and
Divine Truth makes heaven, and also angels, because they
are recipient of it; that the Divine Proceeding from the
Lord is Divine Truth, and that the angelic heaven is from
It, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 126
to 140. The like is also understood by these words of the
Lord, ** The kingdom of God is within you." Luke xvii.
21; the kingdom of God is Divine Good and Truth, in
which the angels are. That angels and spirits are with
man, and in his affections, has been given me to see a
thousand times, from their presence and abode with me;
but angels and spirits do not know the men with whom they
are, neither do men know the angels and spirits they cohabit
with, for the Lord alone knows and disposes this. In a
word, there is an extension into heaven of all the affections
of good and truth, and communication and conjunction with
those who are in the like affections there; and there is an
extension into hell of all the affections of evil and the false,
and a communication and conjunction with those who are in
the like affections there. The extension of the affections
into the spiritual world, is almost like that of sight into the
natural world; communications in both are nearly similar;
yet with this difference, that in the natural world there are
objects, but in the spiritual world angelic societies. Hence
it appears, that the connection of the angelic heaven with
the human race is such, that the one subsists from the other,
and that the angelic heaven without mankind would be like
a house without a foundation, for heaven closes into mankind
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 9
and rests upon them. The case in this is the same as with
each particular man ; his spiritual things, which pertain to
his thought and will, inflow into his natural things, which
* pertain to his sensations and actions, and in these they ter-
minate and subsist; if man were not in possession of them^
that is, if he were without these boundings and ultimates,
his spiritual things, which pertain to the thoughts and affec-
tions of his spirit would dissolve away, like things unbound-
ed, or like those which have no foundation: and it happens,
moreover, when a man passes from the natural into the
spiritual world, which takes place when he dies, that then,
since he is a spirit, he no longer subsists on his own basis,
but upon the common, basis, which is mankind. He who
knows not the mysteries of heaven, may believe, that angels
subsist without men, and men without angels; but I can as-
severate from all my experience of heaven, and from all
my discourse with the angels, that no angel or spirit subsists
apart from man, and no man apart from spirits and angels,
but that there is a mutual and reciprocal conjunction. From
this, it may now be seen that mankind and the angelic heaven
make one, and subsist mutually from, and interchangeably
with each other, and thus that the one cannot be removed
from the other. «
10. That mankind is the Seminary of heaven^ will appear
from a subsequent article, in which it will be shewn, that
heaven and hell are from mankind, and that therefore man-
kind is the seminary of heaven. It will be further shewn
in what is to follow, that as heaven has been formed of the
human race, from the first creation^ until now,~so it will be
formed and enlarged from the same source hereafler. It is
indeed possible that the human race on one earth may per-
ish, which comes to pass when they separate themselves
entirely from the Divine, for then man no longer has spirit-
ual life, but only natural, like that of beasts; and when
man is such, no society can be formed, and held bound by
laws, since without the influx of heaven, and thus without
the divine government, men would become insane, and
rush unchecked into every wickedness, the one against the
other. But although mankind, by separation from the Di-
vine, were to perish on one earth, which however is provided
against by the Lord, yet still they would continue on other
earths; for that there are earths in the universe to some
hundreds of thousands, may be seen in the little work,
'* Of the Earths in our Solar System called Planets, and of
the Earths in the Starry Heaven.** It was declared to me
from heaven, that the human race on this earth would have
10 OF THB LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
perished, so that not one man would have existed on it al
this day, if the Lord bad not come into the world, and on
this earth assumed the Human, and made it Divine; and
also, unless the Lord had given to this earth such a Word
as might serve for a basis ta the angelic heaven, and for its
conjunction mth mankind; that the conjunction of heaven
with man is by the Word, may be seen in the work ob
Heaven and Hell, n. 303 to 310. But that such is the
case can be comprehended only by those who think spiritu-
ally, that id, by those who through the acknowledgment o£
the Lord's Divinity are conjoined with heaven, for they
alone are able to think spiritually.
11. That ihe extension of heaven, which %$ for angels, is so
immense, that it cannot be filled to eternity, appears from what
has been said in the work on Heaven and Hell, On the
immensity of heaven, n. 415 to A^20\ and ThaJt they are hut
feto respectively of whom heaven is at present formed, in the
little work on the Earths in the Universe, n. 128.
That the perfection of heaven increases according to plu'
rality, results from Its form, according to which its associa-
tions are disposed in order, and its communications flow,
for it is of all forms the most perfect; and in proportion to
the increase of numbers in that most perfect form, there is
given a direction and consent of more and more to unity,
and therefore a closer and a more unanimous conjunction ;
the consent and the conjunction derived from it increase by
plurality, for every thing is there inserted as a mediate
relation between two or more, and what is inserted conflrma
and conjoins. The form of heaven is like the form of the
human mind, the perfection of which increases according to
the increase of truth and good, from whence are its intelli-
gence and wisdom. The form of the human mind, which ie
in heavenly wisdom and intelligence, is like the form of
heaven, because the mind is the least image of that form;,
hence it is, that on all sides there is a communication of the
thoughts and affections of good and truth in such men, and
in angels, with surrounding societies of heaven; and an
extension according to the increase of wisdom^ and thu9
according to the plurality of the knowledges of truth im-
planted in the intellect and according to the abundance of
the affections of good implanted in the will; and therefore in
the mind, for the mind consists of the intellect and the will.
The human and angelic mind is such, that it may be en-
larged to eternity, and as it is enlarged, so it is perfected;
and this is especially the case, when man is led by the Lord,
for he is then introduced into genuine truths, which are
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 11
implanted in bis intellect, and into genuine goods, which are
implanted in his will; for the Lord then disposes all things
of such a mind into the form of heaven, until at length it is
a heaven in the least form. From this comparison, which
is a true parallel, it is evident, that the plurality of the an-
gels perfects heaven. Moreover, every form consists of
various parts; a form which does not consist of the various,
is not a form, for it has no quality, and no changes of state;
the quality of every form results from the arrangement of
various things within it, from their mutual respectiveness,
and from their consent to unity, by virtue of which every
form is considered as one thing; such a form, in proportion
to the multitude of the various things arranged within it, is
the more perfect, for every one of them, as before observed,
confirms, corroborates, conjoins, and so produces perfection.
But this is still more plain from what has been shewn in the
work on Heaven and Hell, especially where it treats on
the following subject. That every society of heaven is a
heaven in a lesser form, and every angel a heaven in the
least form. n. 51 to 58; and also in the article, Of the form
of heaven, according to which associations and communica*
tions have place there, n. 200 to 212; and On the wisdom
of the angels of heaven, n. 265 to 275.
13. 7'hat every Divine work has respect to Infinity and
Eternity, is evident from many things which exist both in
heaven and in the world: in neither of them is there ever
given any one thing exactly similar to, or the same as, any
other: no two faces are either alike or identical, nor will be
to eternity; in like manner the animus of one is never alto-
gether like that of another; wherefore there are as many
faces and as many animi, as there are men and angels ; there
is never given in any one man [in whom yet there are innu-
merable parts which constitute his body, and innumerable
affections which constitute his animus,] any one thing quite
alike to, or identical with any one thing in another man;
hence it is that every one leads a life distinct from the life
of another. The same order exists in the whole and in
every part of nature: that such infinite variety is in each,
and in all, is because they all originate from the Divine,
Who is Infinite; hence there is a certain image of Infinity
every where, to the end, that the Divine may regard all
things as his own work, and at the same time that all things,
as his work may bave respect to the Divine. A familiar
instance may serve to illustrate the manner in which every
thing in nature has respect to Infinity and Eternity; any
seed, be it the produce of a tree, or of corn, or of a flower.
12 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THB
is BO created, that it may be multiplied to fafinity, and en-
dure to Eternity; for from one seed are produced many,
five, ten, twenty, to a hundred, and from each of these ^gain
as many more; such fructification from one seed continuing
but f<Kr a century, would cover the surface not only of one,
but of myriads of earths; the same seeds are so created,
that their durations may be eternal; hence it is evident, that
the idea of Infinity and Eternity is contained in them ; and
the like is true in all other cases. The angelic heaven is
the end for which all things in the universe were created,
for it is the end on account of which mankind exists, and
mankind is the end regarded in the creatitm of the visible
heaven, and tho earths included in it; wherefore that Divine
work, namely, the angelic heaven, primarily has respect to
Infinity and Eternity, and therefore to its multiplication
without end, for the Divine Himself dwells within it. Hence
also it is clear, that the human race will never cease, for
were it to cease, the Divine work would be limited to a
^rtain number, and thus its respectiveness to Infinity would
perish.
THAT HEAVEN AND HELL ARE FROM MANKIND.
14. It is altogether unknown in the christian world, that
heaven and hell are from mankind; for it is believed that
angels were created at the beginning, and that^heaven was
formed of them; and, that the devil or satan was an angel
of light, who becoming rebellious, was cast down with his
crew, and that this was the origin of hell. The angels are
greatly astonished at such a faith in the christian world, and
still more, that nothing at all is there known of heaven,
when yet it is a primary subject of doctrine in the church;
and since such ignorance prevails, they are rejoiced in heart
that it has now pleased the Lord to reveal to men many
things concerning heaven, and also concerning hell, and by
this means, as far as possible, to dissipate the darkness
which daily increases, because the church has come to its
end: wherefore they wish me to declare from them, that
there is no one in the universal heaven, who was created an
angel from the first, nor any devil in hell who was created
an angel of light, and then cast down, but that all both in
heaven and in hell are from the human race; in heaven those
who had lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, and
in hell those who had lived in hellish love and faith; and
that it is hell in the whole complex, which is called the devil
BABTLOPr WHICH HAS BEEN DESTHOTED. iS
and satan ; that the hell behind, which is the abode of evil
genii, is the Devil, and the hell in front, which is the abode
of evil spirits, is Satan.** What the one hell is, and what
the other, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell,
towards the end. The angels said, that the christian world
have conceived such a belief about those in heaven and hell,
from certain passages in the Word no otherwise understood
than according to the sense of the letter, and not illustrated
and explained by genuine doctrine from the Word; when
yet the sense of the letter of the Word, if the genuine doc-
trine of the church does not shine before it, divides the
mind into various opinions; whence come ignorance, here-
sies, and errors.**
15. Another cause of such a belief in the man of the
church is, that he believes that no one can go to heaven or
to hell before the time of the last judgment, of which he
has conceived this opinion that the visible world is then to
perish, and to become extant anew, and that then the soul
will return into its body, and that their conjunction will
again enable man to live as man. This belief involves
another about the angels, that they were created from the
beginning; for it is impossible to believe that heaven and
hell are from mankind, when it is believed that no man goes
to either till the end of the world. But in order that man
may be convinced that it is not so, it has been granted me
to have fellowship with angels, and also to speak with those
who are in hell, and this now for many years, sometimes
continuously from morning till evening, and thus to be in-
structed concerning heaven and hell; to the end that the
man of the church may no longer remain in his erroneous
belief, about a resurrection at the day of judgment, about a
state of the soul in the interval, as well as about angels, and
about a devil; which belief, since it is a belief of the false,
induces darkness; and with those who think of sach things
^ That the hellsj pr the infemals, taken collectively, are called the
devil and satan, n. 694. That they who have been devils in the world,
hecome devils afl6r death, n. 9G8.
d That the doctrine of the church must be from the Word. n. 3464,
5402, 6832, 10768, 10765. That the Word cannot be understood without
doctrine, n. 9021, 9409, 9424, 943^, 10324, 10431, 10582. That true
doctrine is a lamp to those who read the Word. n. 10401. That genuine
doctrine must come from those who are in illustration from the Lord. n.
2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105. That they \^ho dwell in the literal sense
of the Word without doctrine, can arrive at no understanding of divine
truths, n. 9409, 9410, 10582. And that they are led into many errors,
n. 40431. The difference between those who teach and learn from the
doctrine of the church derived from the Word, and those (who teach
and learn) only from the literal sense of the Word. n. 9026
14 OF THE {.AST JUDGM^NTi 4Np THg
from self-intelligence, brings on doubt, and at length denial;
for they say in heart, how can so vast a heaven, and so
many stars, with sun and moon be destroyed and dissipated?
and how can the stars fall from heaven upon the earth,
which yet are larger than the earth? or how can bodies,
eaten up by worms, consumed by putrefaction, and scat-
tered to all the winds, be re-collected for their souls? in the
mean time, where is the soul, and what is it without the
senses, which it had in the body? with such like sayings on
matters, which being incomprehensible, fall not within belief,
and destroy 'in many the faith in man's eternal life, in a
heaven and a hell, and with them, in all the remaining tenets
of the faith of the church. That they have wrought this
destruction is evident from those who say. Who ever came
from heaven to tell us that it does exist? What is hell? Is
it any thing at all? What is the meaning of man's being
tormented with eternal fire? What is this day of judg-
ment? Has it not been expected for ages in vain? Ques-
tions such as these imply complete denial. Lest, therefore,
they who think thus (as do many who, from their knowledge
in worldly matters, are reputed skilful and learned,) should
any longer disturb and seduce the simple in faith and heart,
and induce infernal darkness concerning God, heaven, eter-
nal life, and other subjects dependent upon these, the inte-
riors of my spirit have been opened by the Lord, and thus
it'has been granted me to speak with all those of the dead
whom I ever knew in the life of the body, with some for
days, with some for months, and with some for a year, and
also with so many others, that I should come short if I
reckoned them at an hundred thousand, of whom many were
in the heavens, and many in the hells. I have also spoken
with some two days after their decease, and told them that
solemn preparations were then making for their funerals; to
which they said, that it was well to reject that which had
served them for a body and its functions in the world: and
they desired me to declare that they are not dead, but alive
and equally men as before, and that they had only passed
out of one world into another, and did not know that they
had lost any thing, since they are in a body and possessed
of senses as before, and in intellect and will as before, and
have like thoughts and like affections, like sensations, pleas-
ures, and desires, as when they were living in the world.
Most of those who were newly deceased, when they saw
that they were living men as before, and in a similar state,
(for after death the state of every one's life is at first
similar to what it was in the world, but is successively
BA&TLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 15
Tsliartged with each either into heaven or into hell,) were
aflfected with new joy at being alive, and said that they
had believed nothing of this; but greatly wondered that
they could have been so ignorant and so blind, concern*
ing the stiate of their own lives after death ; and more espe-
cially, that the men of the chorch should be so, when yet
they of all men in the world, have the greatest opportunities
of light afforded them.® Then for the first time they saw
the cause of this blindness and ignorance, which is, that ex-
ternal things, such as relate to the world and the body had
occupied and filled their minds to such an extent, that they
could not be elevated into the light of heaven, and behold
the things of the church, which are beyond its doctrinals;
for mere darjcness infiows from corporeal and worldly things
(if they are so much loved as they are at the present day,)
whenever man washes to think of the things of heaven, be-
yond the dictate of the doctrine of faith which belongs to
his church,
16. Very many of the learned from the christian world,
are bewildered when they find themselves after death in a
body, in garments, and in houses as they were in the world;
and when they recall to memory, what they had thought of
the life after death, of the soul, of spirits, of heaven and of
hell, they are aflfected with shame, declare that they have
thought like fools, and that the simple in faiih are much
wiser than they -are. The learned were explored, who had
confirmed themselves in such errors, and who had attributed
all things to nature, and it was found, that the interiors of
their minds were closed, and the exteriors opened, so that
they had not looked to heaven, but to the world, and hence
also to hell; for in so far as the interiors of the mind are
opened, so far man looks to heaven, but in so far as the in-
teriors are closed, and the exteriors opened, in so far he
« That at this day few in Christendom believe, tliat man rises again im-
mediately ailer death, Pref. to chap. xvi. of Gen. n. 4622, 10758. But
at the time of the last judgment when the visible world is to perish, n.
10594. The cause of such belief n. 10504, 1075H. That nevertheless
man does rise again immediately after death, and that then he is a man
in the general and in every particular, n. 4027, 5006, 7078, 8931), 8991,
30594, 10758. That the soul, which lives after death, is man's spirit,
which is the real man in the maa, and which also in the other life is in
a perfect human form, n 322, 1880, 1881, 3633,4622,4735,5883,6054,
6605, 6626, 7021, 10594. The same from experience, n. 4527, 5006,
8939. And from the Word. n. 10597. What is understood by the dead
being seen in the holy city, Matt, xxvii. 53. is explained, n. 9229. How
man is raised from the dead ; by experience, n. 168 to 189. Of his
state after resuscitation, n. 317, 318, 319, 2119, 5070, !059fi. False opin-
ions about the soul and the resurrection, n. 444, 445, 4527, 4622, 4658.
2
16 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
looks to hell ; for the interiors of man are formed for the re-
ception of the all of heaven, and his exteriors for the recep-
tion of the all of the world, and they who receive the world,
and not at the same time heaven, receive hell/
17. That the spirit of man, after its release from the body,
is a man, and in a human form, has been attested to me by
the daily experience of many years; for I have seen, heard^
and conversed with spirits a thousand times; and even on
this very subject; that men in the world do not believe them
to be men, and that they who do believe it, are accounted
simpletons by the learned. The spirits were grieved in
heart, that such ignorance should still prevail in the world,
and most of all in the church; but this, they said, proceeded
grincipaily from the learned, whose thoughts of the soul
ave been sensual-corporeal; wherefore they have con-
ceived no other idea of it, than such as they have of mere
thought; which, when it is regarded without any subject in
which it may be, and from which it may proceed, [in quo et
ex quo] is like some volatile form of pure ether, which is
necessarily dispersed when the body dies; but since the
church derives a belief in the immortality of the soul from
the Word, they were obliged to ascribe to it some vitality,
such as they assign to thought, though not the sensitivity
which man enjoys, till it is again united to its body. On
this opinion is founded the doctrine of a resurrection at the
time of the last judgment, and a belief in a conjunction (of
the soul and the body then); for when this hypothesis about
the soul, is coupled with the church belief in man's eternal
life, no other conclusion can be come to: hence it is, that
when any one thinks of the soul, from the doctrine and hy-
pothesis together, he quite fails to perceive that it is a spirit,
and that this spirit is in a human form. Add to this, that
scarcely any one at this day knows what the spiritual is, and
still less that they who are spiritual, as all spirits and angels
are, have any thing of the human form. Hence it is, that
almost all who come from the world are in the greatest
amazement that they are alive, and equally men as before,
with no diOTerence whatever; but when they cease to be
amazed at themselves, they then wonder that the church
should know nothing of this state of men afler death, when
yet all who have ever lived in the world, are in the other
life, and live as men; and because they have also wondered,
f That in man the spiritnal and the natural worlds are conjoined, n.
6057. That nian*a internal is formed in the image of heaven, but his
external in the image of the wcrld, n. 9628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314,
9706. 10156, 10472.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 17
why this was not disclosed to man by visions, it was told
them from heaven, that this could be done, for nothing is
easier, when the Lord pleases, but that still they who. had
confirmed themselves in falses against it, would not believe,
even though themselves were to see it; and moreover, that
it is perilous to manifest any thing from heaven to those
who are in worldly and corporeal loves, for in this case they
would first believe and afterwards deny, and thus profane an
essential truth; for to believe and afterwards to deny, is to
profane; and they who profane, are thrust down into the
lowest and most grievous of all the hells. It is this peril
which is understood by these words of the Lord, *^ He hath
blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, lest they
should see with the eyes and understand with the heart, and
convert themselves, and I should heal them," John xii. 40;
and that they who are in worldly and corporeal^ loves, still
would not believe, is understood by these words, " Abraham
said to the rich man in hell. They have Moses and the pro-
phets, let them hear them ; but he said, Nay, father Abra-
ham, but if one from the dead come to them, they will be
converted; but Abraham said to him, If they hear not Mo-
ses and the prophets, neither will they believe even if one
rose from the dead." Luke xvi. 29, 30, 31.
18. That heaven is from mankind, is evident from this,
that angelic and human minds are similar; both enjoying
the faculty of understanding, of perceiving, and of willing;
both being formed for receiving heaven; for the human
mind possesses wisdom as well as the angelic ; but it is not
so wise in the world, because it is in a terrestrial body, in
which its spiritual mind thinks naturally, for its spiritual
thought, which it has in common with an angel, then flows
down into natural ideas correspondent with spiritual, and is
thus perceived in them; but it is otherwise when the mind
of man is freed from its connection with the body; then it
no longer thinks naturally but spiritually; and when spirit-
ually, it has thoughts incomprehensible and ineffable to the
natural man, as an angel has. Hence it is evident, that
man's internal, which is called his spirit, in its own essence
is an angel. ^ That an angel is in a perfect human form,
'That there are as many de^ees of life in man, as there are heavens,
and that they are opened afler death according to his life, n. 3747, 9594.
That heaven is in man, n. 3854. That the men, who are living a life of
love and charity, have angelic wisdom tn them, but that it is then latent,
and that they come into it afler death, n. 2494. That in the Word, the
man who receives the good of love and of faith from the Lord, is called
an angel, n. 10528.
18 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
maybe seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 73 to 77:
but when man's internal is not opened above, but only be-
low, then still, after its removal from the body, it is in a hu-
man form, but a direful and diabolical one, for it cannot look
upwards to heaven, but only downwards to hell.
19. That heaven and hell are from mankind, the church
moreover might have known from the Word, and made part
of its own doctrine, had it been admissive of illustration from
heaven, and attended to the Lord's words to the thief, that
^* to day he should be with Him in paradise," Luke xxiii. 43;
or to those which the Lord spake concerning Dives and Laz-
arus, that " the one went to hell, and thence spoke with Abra*
ham, and that the other went to heaven," Luke xvi. 19 to 31 ;
or to what the Lord told the Sadducees respecting the res-
urrection, that " God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living," Matt. xxii. 32 : and furthermore the church might
have known it from the common faith of all who live well, es-
pecially from their faith in the hour of death, when they are
no longer in worldly and corporeal states, in that they believe
they shall go to heaven, as soon as the life of their body
ceases j this faith prevails with all, so long as they do not
think, from the doctrine of the church, of a resurrection at
the time of the last judgment. Inquire into the subject and
you will be confirmed that it is so.
20. He who has been instructed on Divine order, may
moreover understand, that man was created to become an an-
gel, because in him is the ultimate of order, [see n. 9] in
which ultimate, whatever belongs to celestial and angelic wis-
dom may be formed, renewed, and multiplied ; Divine order
never subsists in the mediate, so as to form any thing there
without an ultimate, for it is not in its own fulness and per-
fection there ; but it proceeds to an ultimate : and when it is
in its own ultimate, it then forms, and also by mediates there
collated, renews and produces itself farther, which is brought
about by procreations : wherefore the seminary of heaven is
in the ultimate. This also is the meaning of the things rela-
ted of man, and of his creation in the first chapter of Gene-
sis, V. 26, 27, 28. ** God said, We will make man into our
image, according to our likeness ; and God created man
into the image of Himself, into the image of God He created
him; male and female He created them; and God blessed
them, and God said unto them, be ye fruitful and multiply;"
to create into the image of God, and into the likeness of God,
is to confer upon man all things of Divine order from first to
last, and thus to make him an angel, as regards the interiors
of his mind.
BABTiiOM WHICH HAS BEEN DBSTBOYED. 19
21. Tbajt the Lord rose again not only as to the Spirit, but
also as to the Body, is because the Lord, when He was in the
world, glorified His whole Human j that is, made it Divine :
for the Soul, which He had from the Father, of Itself was
the Essential Divine, and the body was made a similitude of
the Soul, that is of the Father, and therefore also Divine :
hence it is that He Himself [unlike any other man], rose
again as regarded both^; which He also disclosed to His dis-
ciples, who believed they saw a spirit when they beheld Him;
for He said, " behold my hands and my feet, that it is I My-
self : handle Me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones,
as ye see me have,'' Luke xxiv. 36, 37, 38; by which words
He pointed out that He was not only a Man as to the Spirit,
but also as to the Body.
22. Moreover that heaven and hell are from mankind, has
been shewn in many articles in the work on Heaven and
Hell; as for instance in these following. Of the nations and
people in heaven who are not within the Church, n. 318 to
328. Of infants in heaven, n. 329 to 345. Of the wise and
the simple in heaven, n. 346 to 356. Of the rich and the
poor in heaven, n. 357 to 365. That every man is a spirit,
as regards his own interiors, n. 432 to 444. That man afler
death is in a perfect human form, n. 453 to 460. That man
after death is in possession of all the sense, memory, thought,
and affection, which he had in the world, and leaves nothing
but his terrestrial body, n. 461 to 469. Of the first state of
man after death, n. 491 to 498. Of the second state of man
after death, n. 499 to 51 1. Of his third state, 512 to 517.
See moreover what is said of the hells, n. 436 to 588. From
all these articles it may be seen to result, that heaven does
not consist of any angels created in the beginning, nor hell
of any devil and his crew, but solely of those who have been
born men.
THAT ALL WHO HAVE EVER BEEN BORN MEN FROM THE
BEGINNING OF CREATION, AND ARE DECEASED, ARE
EITHER IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL.
23. I. This is a consequence of what was declared and
shewn in the preceding article, namely, that heaven and hell
are from mankind.
II. And of this, that every man after the life to the world,
lives to eternity.
b That man rises again u to the spirit only, n. IQ593, 10594. That
the Lord alone rose as to the body also, n. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.
2»
20 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
III. That thus all who have ever l^een born men from the
creation of the world, and are deceased, are either in heaven
or in hell.
IV. That since all who are to be born hereafter, must also
go into the spiritual world, that world is so vast, and such a
world, that the natural world, the abode of men on earth,
cannot be compared with it.
But in order that all these things may be the more dis-
tinctly perceived, and the more evident, I wish to expound
and describe them one by one.
24. That it is a consequence of what was declared and shewn
in the preceding article, [namely , that heaven and hell are from
mankind^ f that all who have ever been bom men from the
beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven
or in hell, is clear without explication. It has been the com-
mon belief hitherto, that men are not to go to heaven or to
hell before the day of the last judgment, when souls are to
return into their own bodies, and thus to realize such condi-
tions, as are believed to be the properties of the body : the
simple have been led into this belief by men professing wis-
dom, who have made the interior state of man the subject of
their inquiry. These men, having never entertained any
thought of the spiritual world, but only of the natural world,
nor therefore of the spiritual man, knew not that the spiritual
man which is in every natural man, is in the human form, as
well as the natural man; and hence it never entered their
minds that the natural man draws his own human form from
his spiritual man ; although they might have seen that the
spiritual man acts at will upon the whole, and upoif every
part of the natural man, and that the natural man of himself
does absolutely nothing. It is the spiritual man who thinks
and wills, for this the natural man of himself cannot do, and
thought and will are the all in all of the natural man, for he
is put in action as^the spiritual man wills, and speaks as the
8j)iHtual thinks, and that so entirely, that action is nothing
without will, and speech is nothing without thought, for on
the removal of thought and will, speech and action cease in
a moment. •From this it is evident that the spiritual man is
indeed a man, and that he is in the whole, and in every part
of the natural man, and that therefore their effigies are alike,
for the part or particle of the natural man, in which the spi-
ritual does not act, has no life in it. But the spiritual man
cannot appear to the eyes of the natural man, for, although
it is according to order, that the spiritual should see the na-
tural, it is contrary to order, that the natural should see the
spiritual; since there is given an influx, and therefore also a
BABYLON -WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 21
sight of the spiritual into the natural, (for sight too is influx),
but not the reverse. It is the spiritual man who is called the
spirit of man, and who appears in the spiritual world in a per-
fect human fbrm, and lives after death. Because they who
are intelligent have hitherto known nothing of the spiritual
world, and therefore nothing of the spirit of man, [as was
said above], they have conceived a notion, that man cannot
live as man after death, before his soul returns into the body,
and again puts on the senses : hence have arisen their so
trifling ideas about man's resurrection, to wit, that corpses,
though eaten up by worms and fish, or quite gone to dust,
are to be re-collected by Divine Omnipotence, and re-united
to souls; and that this is not to happen till the end of the
world, when the visible universe is to perish; with many
more such notions, which are every one of them inconceiva-
ble, and at the first glance of the mind, strike it as impossi-
bilities, and contrary to Divine Order, tending thus to weaken
the faith of many ; for those who think wisely, cannot believe
what they do not in some measure comprehend; no belief in
impossibilities can exist, that is, no belief in such things as
man thinks to be impossible : hence also those, who disbe-
lieve the life after death, derive an argument in support of
their denial. But that man rises again immediately after
death, and that then he is in a perfect human form, may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, in many of its arti-
cles. These things have been said, that it may be still more
confirmed that heaven and hell are from mankind, from which
it follows, that all who were ever born men from the begin-
ning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or
in hell.
25. That everi/ man after the life in the world lives to eteV"
nity, results from this, that man is then spiritual, and no lon-
ger natural, and that the spiritual ifi^n, separated from the
natural, maintains his quality to eternity, for man's state can-
not be changed afler death. Moreover, the spiritual of every
man is in conjunction with the Divine, since it has the power
of thinking of the Divine, and also of loving the Divine, and
of being affected with all things which are from the Divine,
[such as those which the church teaches], and therefore of
being conjoined to the Divine by thought and will, which are
the two faculties of the spiritual man, and constitute his life;
and that which can thus be conjoined to the Divine, can
never die, for the Divine is with it, and conjoins it to Him-
self. Furthermore, as regards his spirit, man is created to
the form of heaven, and the form of heaven is from the Di-
vine Himself, as may be seen in the work on Heaven and
22 OF THE LAST JUDGMExVT, AND THE
Hell, where it has been shewn, That the Divine of the Lord
makes and forms heaven, n. 7 to 12, and n. 78 to 36. Thai
man is created to be a heaven in the least effigy, n, 51.
That heaven, in the whole complex, has reference to one
man, n. 59 to 66. That hence an angel is in a perfect hu-
man form, n. 73 to 77; an angel is a man regarded as to his
spiritual. On this subject moreover, I have often conversed
with the angels, who wondered vastly, that of those who are
called intelligent in the christian world, and who even have
credit given them for intelligence by others, there are very
many who utterly reject the believe of their own immortal-
ity, believing that the soul of a man is dissipated at death,
just as the soul of a beast is; not perceiving the distinction
between the life of a man and the life of a beast; that man
has the power of thinking above himself, of God, of heaven,
of love, of faith, of good, spiritual and moral, of truths, and
the like, and that thus he may be elevated to the Divine
Himself, and be conjoined by all those things to Him; but
that beasts cannot be elevated above their own natural, to
tbink of such things, and of consequence that their spiritual,
jijt death, cannot be separated from their natural, ' so as to
live by itself, as man's spiritual can : whence also it is, that
the life of a beast ceases, on the dissipation of its natural life.
The reason why many of the so-called intelligent in the
jObristian world, have no faith in the immortality of their own
lives* the angels declared to be this, that in heart they deny
the Divine, and acknowledge nature instead of the Divine,
and they who think from such principles, are not able to
think of any eternity by conjunction with the Divine, nor
consequently, of the state of man as dissimilar to that of
beasts, for in rejecting the Divine from thought, they also,
reject eternity. The angels declared moreover, that with
every man there is an inmost or supreme degree of life, or
an inmost or supreme somewhat (quaddam) into which the
Divine of the Lord primarily or proximately inflows, and
Ifom which He disposes all the remaining interiors belong-
ing to the spiritual and natural man, which are successive in
both according to gradations of order : this inmost or su-
preme they called the Lord's entrance into man, and His
1 That there is also an influx from the spiritual world into the lives of
beasts, but that it is common, and not special as with man,n. 1633, 3646.
That the distinction between men and beasts is this, that men may be
eierated above themselves to the Lord, may think of the Divine, may
love Him, and may thus be conjoined to the Lord, whence they have
eternal life ; but it is otherwise with beasts, which cannot be elevated to
such things, n. 4525, 6323, 9231.
BAfetLOJ^ Wincfi HAS flEfiN DEStAot^D. $5
Veriest dwelling place with him; and they said, that by this
inmost or supreme, man is man, and is distinguished fl'om
briite animals which have it not; and lh£lt hence it is, that
men, as regards the interiors which belong to their minds
«ind their animi, unlike animals, may be elevated by the Lord
to Himself, may have faith in Him, may be affected by love
to Him, may receive intelligence and wisdom, and speak
from reason. When I asked them concerning those who
deny the Divine, and the Divine truths, by which the con-
junction of the life of man with the Divine Himself is effectedy'
and who live to eternity, notwithstanding their denial, they
replied, that these also have the faculty of thinking and of
willing, and therefore of believing and loving the things
which are from the Divine, as well as those who acknow-
ledge the Divine, and that by virtue of this faculty, they too
live to eternity; and they added, that this faculty is from that
inmost or supreme which is in every man, [of which mention
was made above] : (that it is possessed even by thoee who
arc in hell, and that they derive from it a power of reasoning
and speaking against Divine truths, has been shewn in many
places) : hence it is, that every man lives to eternity, be he
what he may. Because every man after death lives to eter-
nity, no angel or spirit ever thinks of death ; nay they are
utterly ignorant of what it is to die; wherefore, when death
is mentioned in the Word, the angels understand by it either
damnation, which is death in the spiritual sense, or continu-
ation of life and resurrection.'^ These things have been said
in confirmation that all the men who have ever been born,
and have died, from the beginning of creation, are alive,
some in heaven, and some in hell.
26. In order that I might know ifiat all who have ever been
born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased,
are either in heaven or in hell, it has been granted me to speak
with some who lived before the deluge; and also with some
who lived after the deluge; and with certain of the Jewish
nation, who are made known to us by the Word of the Old
Testament; with some who lived in the Lord's time; with
many who lived in the ages succeeding, even down to the
^ That when death is mentioned in the Word, and 'spoken of the wick-
ed, in heaven are understood damnation, (which is spiritual death,) and
also hell, n. 5407, 6119, 9008. That they who are in goods and truths
are called living, but they who are in evils and falses, dead, n. 81, 290,
7494. That by death, when spoken of the good who die, resurrection
and continuation of life are understood in heaven, for at death man rises
again, continues his own life, and advances in it to eternity, n. 3498,
3505, 4618, 4681, 6036, 6222.
24 O^ THE LAST JCOOMfiNT, AND THE
present day ; and moreover with all those of the dead, whom
I had been acquainted with during their lives in the body;
and likewise with infants, and with many of the Gentiles.
From this experience I have been fully convinced, that there
is not one, who was ever born a man, from the first creation
of this earth, who is not in heaven or in hell.
27. That since all, loho are to be bom hereafter, must also
go into the spiritual world, that world is so vast and such a
worldy that the natural world, the abode of men on earth, car^
■not be compared with it, is evident, from the immense multi-
tude of men, who have passed into the spiritual world since
the first creation, and who are together there ; as well as
from the continual increase which the spiritual world mil
receive from mankind hereafter, for from mankind it will re-
ceive accessions, and that without end, in conformity with
what has been shewn above, in an article for the purpose^
[n. 6 to 13] namely, that the procreations of the human racQ
on the earth will never cease. When my eyes have been
opened for me, it has sometimes been granted me to see,
how immense, even now, is the multitude of men \fho are
there; it is so great that it can scarcely be numbered, — such
myriads are there — and that only in one place, towards one
quarter; what then must the numbers be in the other quar-
ters? For all are there collected into societies, and the so-
cieties exist in vast numbers, and each society, in its own
place, forms three heavens, and three hells under them;
wherefore there are some spirits who are on high, some who
are in the middle, and some who are below them, and un-
derneath, there are those who are in the lowest places, or in
the hells; and those who are above, dwell among themselves
as men dwell, in cities, in which hundreds of thousands are
together: whence it is evident, that the natural world, the
abode of men on earth, cannot be compared with that world,
as regards the multitude of the human race; so that when
man passes from the natural world into the spiritual, it is
like going from a village into a mighty city. That neither
can the natural world be compared with the spiritual world
in kind, may appear from this, that not only have all the
things which are in the natural world an existence there,
but innumerable others besides, which never were seen in
this world, nor can be presented to the sight, for spiritual
things are there efligied by natural-seeming appearances
which fully represent them, each several thing with an infi-
nite variety; for the spiritual so far exceeds the natural in
excellence, that the things are few which can be produced to
the natural sense; the natural sense not receiving one, for
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 25
thousands which the spiritual mind receives; and all things
which belong to the spiritual mind, are presented, even m
forms to the sight of spirits, and this is the reason why it is
impossible to describe what the spiritual world is, as regards
its own magnificent and stupendous things. These moreo*-
ver increase in proportion to the multiplication of the human
race in the heavens, for all things are there presented in
forms which correspond to the state of each spirit as to love
and faith, and thence as to wisdom and intelligence; and
thus with a variety which increases continually, as the mul-
titude increases; whence it has been said by those who were
elevated into heaven, that they saw and heard things there,,
which no eye has ever seen, and no ear has ever heard.
From these observations it may appear, that the spiritual
world is such, that the natural world cannot be tsompared
with it. Moreover, what it is, may be seen in the work on
Heaven and Hell, where it treats, of the two kingdoms of
heaven, n. 20 to 28. Of the societies of heaven, n. 41 to
50. Of representatives and appearances in heaven, n. 170
to 176. Of the wisdom of the angels of heaven, n. 265 to
275. The things there described however are very few.
THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT MUST BE WHERE ALL ARE
TOGETHER, AND THEREFORE IN THE SPIRITUAL
WORLD, AND NOT UPON EARTH.
28. Concernino the last judgment, it is believed that the
Lord will then appear in the clouds of heaven with the an-
gels in glory, and awaken from the sepulchres all who have
ever lived since the beginning of creation, clothing their
souls with bodies; and when they are thus summoned to-
gether, that he will judge them, those who have done well,
to eternal life or heaven, those who have done ill, to eternal
death or hell. The churches derive this belief from the
sense of the letter of the Word, nor could it be removed, so
long as men did not know that there is a spiritual sense
within every thing which is related in the literal sense of
the Word, and that that sense is the Essential Word, to
which the sense of the letter serves for a foundation and a
basis, and that without such a letter as it has, the Word
could not have been Divine, or have served in heaven, as
in the world, for the doctrine of life and faith, and for con-
junction. He therefore who is acquainted with the spiritual
things, to which the natural expressions of the Word cor-
respond, has the power of knowing that by the Lord's ad-
&6 of THE tAST ^UDOMENTj AND TM^
vent in the clouds of heaven, id not to be understood that
jle will thus appear, .but that He will appear in the Word;
for the Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine Truth \
the clouds of heaven in which He is to come, are the sense
of the letter of the Word, and the Glory is its spiritual
sense; the angels are the heaven from which He will ap-
pear, and moreover they are the Lord as to Divine Truths.*
Hence the meaning of these words is now evident, namely,
that when the end of the church is, the Lord will reveal the
spiritual sense of the Word, and thus the Divine Truth,
such as It is in Itself; therefore that this is the sign that
the last judgment is at hand. That there is a spiritual
sense within each thing and expression in the Word, and
what it is, may be seen in the Arcana Ccelestia, in which
all the contents of Genesis and Exodus are explained accor-
ding to that sense ; and a collection of passages extracted
from it, on the Word and its spiritual sense, may be seen in
the little work, on the White Horse, mentioned in the
Apocalypse.
29. That the last judgment must be in the spiritual world,
and not in the natural world, or on the earth, is evident from
the two preceding articles, and will be seen further in what
is to follow. In the previous articles it has been shewn,
that heaven and hell are from mankind, and that all who
were ever born men since the beginning of creation, and
are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, and that there-
fore they are all assembled in the spiritual world [ibi] : but
in the articles which follow it comes to be shewn that the
last judgment has already been accomplished.
30. And moreover, no one is judged from the natural
man, or therefore during the life in the natural world, for
man is then in a natural body: but every one is judged in
1 From the Arcana Ccelestia. That the Lord is the Word, because
He is the Divine Truth in heaven, n. 3533, 2818, 2859, 2894, 3393, 3712.
That the Lord is the Word, also because it is from Him, and treats of
Him, n. 2859; And because it treats of the Ix)rd alone, and primarily
of the Glorification of His Human in its inmost sense, so that the Lord
Himself is in it, n. 1873, 9357. That the coming of the Lord is His
Presence in the Word, and revelation, n 3900, 4060. That clouds in
the Word signify the Word in the letter, or its literal sense, n. 4060,
4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 8106, H781, 9430, 10551, 10574. That Glory in
the Word signifies Divine Truth, such as It is in heaven, and such as It
is in the spiritual sense, n. 4809, 5292, 8267, 8427, 942:^, 10574. That
angels in the Word signify Divine Truths from the l^ord, since angels
are receptions of them, and do not speak them from themselves, but
from the Lord, n. 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 4295, 4402, 62S0, 8192, 8301.
That trumpets or cornets, which the angels then have, signify Divine
Truths in heaven, and revealed from heaven, n. 8815, 8823, 8915.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. S7
the Spiritual tnaiij and therefore when he comes into the
spiritual world, for man is then in a spiritual body. It is
the spiritual in man which is judged, but not the natural, for
no blame or criminality can be imputed to it, since it does
not live of itself, but is only the servant, and passive instru-
ment of the spiritual man. [See n. 24.] Hence also it is,
that judgment is effected upon men when they have put off
their natural, and put on their spiritual bodies. In the spit-
ttual body moreover, man appears such as he is with respect
to love and faith, for every one in the spiritual world is the
e&gy of his own love, not only as regards the face and the
body, but even as regards the speech and the actions. [See
the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 481.] Hence it is, that
the true qualities of all are known, and their instantaneous
separation effected, whenever the Lord pleases. From what
has been said it is plain, that judgment is effected in the
spiritual world, but not in the natural world, or on the earth.
31. That the natural life in man has no efBciency, but his
spiritual life in the natural, since what is natural, of itself
is void of life; and that the life which appears in it, is from
the life of the spiritual man, and that therefore it is the
spiritual man who is judged; and moreover that being
judged according to deeds, means that man's spiritual is
judged, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, in
the article headed. That man afler death is such as his life
in the world has been, n. 470 to 484.
32. I am here desirous of adducing a certain heavenly
arcanum, which is indeed mentioned in the work on Heaven
and Hell, but has never yet been described. Every one
after death is bound to some society, even when first he
comes into the spiritual world, [see that work, n. 427 to
497,] but a spirit in his first state is ignorant of it, for he is
then in externals and not yet in internals. When he is in
this state, he goes hither and thither, wherever the desires
of his animus impel him, but still actually, he is where his
love is, that is, in a society composed of those who are in a
love like his own. When a spirit is in such a state he then
appears in many other places, in all of them also present as
it were with the body, but this is only an appearance ; where-
fore as soon as he is led (perducitur) by the Lord into his
own ruling love, he vanishes instantly from the eyes of oth-
ers, and is among his own, in the society to which he was
bound. This peculiarity exists in the spiritual world, and is
a wonder to those who are ignorant of its cause. Hence it
is then, that as soon as ever spirits are congregated to-
gether, and separated, they are also judged, and every one
3
38 OF THB LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
is presently in his own place, the good in heaven, and in a
society there among their own, and the wicked in bell, and
in a society there among their own. From these things it is
moreover evident, that the last judgment can exist nowhere
but in tlfe spiritual world, both because every one there is
in the likeness of his own life, and because he is with those
who are in similar life, and is thus in society with his own.
But in the natural world it is not so; the good and the evil
may dwell together there, the one ignorant of what the other
is, and the life's love of each producing no separation be-
tween them. Indeed it is impossible for any one in the
natural body, to be either in heaven or in hell; wherefore in
order that man may go to one of them, it is necessary that
he put off the natural, and be judged in the spiritual body.
Hence it is, as was said above, that the spiritual man is
judged, and not the natural.
THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT EXISTS, WHEN THE END
OF THE CHURCH IS: AND THAT THE END OF THE
CHURCH IS, WHEN FAITH IS NOT, BECAUSE CHARITY
IS NOT.
33. There are many reasons why the last judgment ex-
ists, when the end of the church is; the principal is, that
then, the equilibrium between heaven and hell, and man's
essential liberty along with it, begin to perish; and when
man's liberty perishes, he can no longer be saved, for he
cannot then be led to heaven in freedom, but is hurried into
hell apart from freedom; for no man can be reformed with-
out free-will, and all man's free-will is the result of the equi-
librium between heaven and hell. That it is so, may appear
from two articles in the work on Heaven and Hell, where
it treats, Of the equilibrium between heaven and hell, n.
589 to 596: and shews, Xhat man is in freedom by means
of that equilibrium; n. 597 to 603; and further, That no
man can be reformed except in freedom.
34. That the equilibrium between heaven and hell begins
to perish at the end of the church, may appear from this,
that heaven and hell are from mankind, [as shewn above in
its proper article,] and that when many go to hell, and few
to heaven, evil on the one part, increases over good on the
other; for evil increases in proportion as hell increases, and
all evil is derived to man from hell, and all good from heav-
en. Now since evil increases over good at the end of tho
church, all are then judged by the Lord, the evil are sepa-
rated from the good, all things are reduced into order, and
BABTLOIV WHICH HAS BEEN DEStROTBD. 29
a new heaven is established, with a new church upon earth,
and thus the equilibrium is restored. It is this then which
is called the last judgment, of which more will belaid in
the following articles.
35. It is known from the Word, that the end of the church
is, when faith no longer exists within it, but it is not yet
known, that faith is not, if charity is not; therefore some-
thing shall now be said upon this subject. It is foreshewn
by the Lord that there is no faith at the end of the church,
'* When the Son of Man comes shall He find faith upon the
earth," Luke xviii. 8. and, moreover, that there is no char-
ity then, ** In the consummation of the age iniquity will
be multiplied, the charity of many will grow cold, and this
gospel will be preached in all the world, and then shall the
end come.'* Matthew xxiv. 12, 14. The consummation of
the age, is the last time of the church: the state of the
church successively decreasing in regard to love and faith,
is described by the Lord in this chapter, but it is described
by mere correspondences, and therefore the things therein
predicted by the Lord cannot be understood, without a
knowledge of the correspondent spiritual sense in each ex-
pression; on which account it has been granted me by the
Lord to explain in the Arcana Coelestia the whole of that
chapter and a part of the next, both of them treating of the
consummation of the age, of His advent, of the successive
vastation of the church, and of the last judgment. See the
Arcana Ccelestia, n. 3353 to 3356, 3486 to 3489, 3650 to
3655, 3751 to 3759, 3897 to 3901, 4056 to 4060, 4229 to
4231, 4332 to 4335, 4422 to 4424, 4635 to 4638, 4661 to
4664, 4807 to 4810, 4954 to 4959, 5063 to 5071.
36. Something shall now be said on this point, that there
is no faith, if there is no charity. It is supposed that faith
exists, so long as the doctrinals of the church are believed;
or that they who believe, have faith; and yet mere believing
is not faith, but willing and doing what is believed, is faith.
When the doctrinals of the churcfi are merely believed,
they are not in man's life, but only in his memory, and
thence in the thought of his outer man; nor do they enter
into his life, before they enter into his will, and thence into
his actions; then for the first time does faith exist in roan's
spirit; for man's spirit, the life of which is his essential life,
is formed from his will, and from so much of his thought, as
proceeds from his will ; the memory of man, and the thought
derived from it, being only the court-yard, by which intro-
duction is effected. Whether you say the will, or the love,
it is the same, since every one wills what he loves, and
30 OF THfi LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
loves what he wills, and the will is the receptacle of love
aad the intellect, whose province it is to think, is the recep*
tacle of faith. A man may know, think, and understand
many things, but those which do not accord with his will or
love, he rejects from him when he is left to himself, to med-
itate from his own will or love, and therefore he also rejects
them after the life of the body, when he lives in the spirit;
for that alone remains in man's spirit which has entered into
his will or love, [as was said above] ; other things after
death being viewed as foreign, which he turns out of doors,
and regards with aversion, because they are not properties
of his love. But it is another thing when man not merely
believes those doctrinals of the church which are derived
from the Word, but wills them, and does them too; then
faith is effected (fit); for faith is the affection of truth,
from the act of willing truth, because it is truth; the act of
willing truth for its own sake being the spiritual essence of
a man, and divested of the natural, which consists in willing
truth, not for truth's sake, but for the sake of self-glory,
&me and gain. Truth regarded apart from such things is
spiritual, because in its own essence, it is Divine; where-
fore, to will truth because it is truth, is also to acknowledge,
and to love the Divine. These two are perfectly conjoined,
and moreover are regarded as one in heaven, for that the
Divine which proceeds from the Lord in heaven is Divine
Truth, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n.
128 to 132: and they are angels in the heavens, who re-
ceive it, and make it constituent of their lives. These things
are said, in order that it may be known, that faith does not
consist in bare believing, but in willing and in doing, and thai
therefore there is no faith if there is no charity. Charity or
love is to will and to do.
.37. That within the church at this day, faith is so rare,
that it can scarcely be said to exist at all, was made evident^
from many of the learned and many of the simple, whose
spirits were explored after death, as to what their faith had
been in the world, and it was found, that every one of them
supposed faith to be bare believing, and persuading thcni*
selves that it was so; and that the more learned of them
placed it entirely in believing, with trust or confidence, that
they are saved by the Lord's passion, and His intercession,
and that hardly one among them knew that there is no faith,
if there is no charity or love; nay, that they did not know
what charity to the neighbor is, nor the difference between
thinking and willing. For the most part they turned their
backs upon charity, saying that charity does nothing, but
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DBSTRO¥ED. 31
that faith is alone effective. When it was replied to them,
Chat charity and faith are one, as the will and the intellect
are one^ and that charity has its seat in the will, and faith in
the intellect, and that to separate the one from the other, is,
as it were, to separate the will from the intellect, this they
did not understand: whence it was made evident to me that
scarcely any faith exists at the present day. This also yas
shewn them to the lite: they who were in the persuasion
that they had faith, were led to an angelic society, where
genuine faith existed, and when they were made to comroa-
Qicate with it, they clearly perceived that they had no faith,
which afterwards moreover, they confessed in the presence
of many. The same thing was also made apparent by other
Cleans to those who had made a profession of faith, and had
thought they believed, without having lived the life of faith,
which is charity; and they all confessed that they had no
faith, because they had nothing of it in the life of thetr
spirits, but only in some thought extrinsic to it, whilst they
lived in the natural world.
38. Such is the state of the church at this day, namely,
that in it there is no faith, because there is no charity; and
where there is no charity, there is no spiritual good, for ^
that good exists from charity alone. It was declared from
heaven that there is still good with some, but that it cannot
be called spiritual, but natural good, because Essential Di-
vine Truths are in obscurity, and Divine Truths introduce
to charity, for they teach it, and regard it as their end and
aim; whence no other charity can exist than such as ac-
cords with the truths which form it. The Divine Truths
from which the doctrines of the churches are derived, re*
spect faith alone, on which account they are called the doc-
trines of faith, and have no respect to life; but truths which
regard faith alone and not life, cannot make man spiritual,
for so long as they are external to the life they are only
natural, being merely known and thought of like common
things: hence it is that spiritual good is not given at the
present day, but only natural good with some. Moreover
every church in the commencement is spiritual, for it begins
from charity, but in the course of time it turns aside from char-
ity to faith, and then from being an internal church it becomes
an external one, and when it becomes external its end is, since
it then places everything in knowledge, and little or nothing
in life. Thus also in proportion as man from being internal
becomes external, spiritual light is darkened within him, until
he DO longer sees Divine Truth from Truth Itself, that is from
the light of heaven, for Divine Truth is the light of heaven,
3»
S2 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THB
but only from natural light, which is of such a nature, that
when it is alone, and not illustrated by spiritual light, it sees
Divine Truth as it were in night, and recognises it as truth
for no other reason, than that it is so called by the heads^
and received as such by the commonalty of the church.
Hence it is, that the intellectual faculty of persons in Mb
state cannot be illustrated by the Lord, for in as far as natu*
ral light shines in the intellectual faculty, in so far is spirit*
ual light obscured; (natural light shines in the intellectual
faculty f when the mundane, the corporeal, and the earthy,
are loved in preference to the spiritual, the celestial, and the
Divine); in so far also is man external.
39. But since it is not known in the christian world that
there is no faith if there is no charity, nor what charity to
the neighbor is, nor even that the will constitutes the real
[ipsum] man, and the thought only in as far as it proceeds
from the will, therefore, in order that these subjects may
come into the light of the intellect, I am desirous of adjoin-
ing a collection of passages concerning them from the Ar*
can a GoBlestia, which may serve for illustration.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ARCANA CGELESTIA.
Of Faith. That they who know not that all things in
the universe refer themselves to Truth and Goqd, and to
the conjunction of both, in order to the production of any
thing, know not that all things of the church refer them-
selves to Faith and Love, and to the conjunction of both,
n. 7752 to 7762, 9186, 9224. That all things in the uni-
verse refer themselves to truth and good, and to their con-
junction, n. 2461, 3166, 4390, 4409, 5232, 7256, 10122,
10555. That truths belong to faith, and goods to love, n.
4353,4997, 7178, 10367.
That they who know not that the whole, and all the parts
in man, have relation to the Intellect and the Will, and
to the conjunction of both, in order that man may be man,
also know not that all things of the church have relation to
Faith and Love, and to their conjunction, in order that the
church may be in man, n. 2231, 7752, 7753, 7754, 9224,
9995, 10122. That man has two faculties, one of which is
called the intellect, and the other the will, n. 641, 803,
3623, 3939. That the intellect is dedicated to the reception
of truths, or of those things which belong to faith; and the
will to the reception of goods, or of those things which be-
long to love, n. 9300, 9930, 10064. That hence it foUows,
BABTLON WHICH HAS BBEN I>£STR0¥|1D. 33
that love ar charity makes the church, and not faith alone,
or faith separated from love or charity, n. 809, 916, 1798,
1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 6826.
That faith separated from charity is no faith, n. 654, 724,
1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2340, 2349, 2419, 3849, 3868,
6348, 7039, 7842, 9782. That such faith perishes in an*
other life, n. 2228, 5820. That doctrinals concerning faith
alone, destroy charity, n. 6353, 8094. That they who sepa-
rate faith from charity are represented in the Word by Cain,
by Ham, by Reuben, by the first-born of the Egyptians,
and by the Philistines, n. 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093. That in
as far as charity departs, in so far prevails a religion respect-
ing faith alone, n. 2231. That the church in process of
time turns aside from charity to faith, and at length to faith
alone, n. 4683, 8094. That in the last time of the church
there is no faith, because there is no charity, n. 1843, 3489^
4649. That they who make faith alone salvific, excuse a
ife of evil; and that they who are in a life of evil, have no
faith, because they have no charity, n. 3865, 7766, 7778,
7790, 7950, 8094. That they are inwardly in the falses of
their own evil, although they are not aware of it, n. 7790,
7950. That therefore good cannot be conjoined to them, n.
8981, 8983. That also in another life they are opposed to
good, and to those who are in good, n. 7097, 7127, 7317,
7502, 7945, 8096, 8313. That the simple in heart know
better than the learned what the good of life is, and thus
what charity is, but not what separated faith is, n. 4741, 4754.
That good is the esse, and truth the existere derived from
it, and that thus the truth of faith has its own esse of life
from the good of charity, n. 8049, 3180, 4574, 5002, 9144.
Hence, that the truth of faith lives from the good of charity,
or that charity is the life of faith, n. 1589, 1947, 1997, 2579,'
4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9154,
9667, 9841, 10729. That faith is not alive in man, wh^n
he only knows and thinks over the things of faith, but when
he wills them, and from the act of willing, does them, n.
9224. That the conjunction of the Lord with man is not by
faith, but by the life of faith, which is charity, n. 9380,
10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10648. That worship from
the good of charity is true worship, but worship from the
truth of faith, without the good of charity, is merely an ex-
ternal act, n. 7724.
That faith alone, or faith separated from charity is as the
light of winter, in which all terrestrial growths are torpid,
and nothing is produced; but that faith in union with charity
b as the light of spring and of summer, in which they all
34 OF TfiB LAST JUDOMAKT, AND TBB
bloom and are made productive, n. 2231, 3146^ 3412, 3413.
That the wintry light, which is that of separated faith, ia
another life is turned into dense darkness, when the Jight of
lieaven inflows; and that they who are in that faith, are then
overtaken by blindness and stupidity, n. 3412, 3413. That
they who separate faith from charity, are in darkness, and
thus in ignorance of truths and thence in falses, for falses
are darkness, n. 9186. That they cast themselves into
falses, and thence into evils, n. 3325, 8094. The errors
and falses into which they cast themselves, n. 4721, 4730^
4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313, 8765, 9224. That the Word
is closed against them, n. 3773, 4783, 8780. That they do
not see and attend to all the things which the Lord so oflen
spake concerning love and charity, which see, n. 1017,
3416. That they neither know what good is, what heavenly
love is, nor what charity is, n. 2507, 3603, 4136, 9995.
That charity makes the church, and not faith separated
from charity, n. 809, 916,1798, 1799, 1834, 1844. How
much of good would exist in the church, if charity were re-
garded as primary, n. 6269, 6272. That the church would
be one, and not divided into many, if charity were its es*
sential; and that then it would be unimportant if men did
differ on the doctrines of faith and the rites of external
worship, n. 1285, 1316, 2385, 2853,2982, 3267, 3445,3451,
3452. That all in heaven are regarded from charity, and
none from faith without it, n. 1258, 1394, 2364, 4802.
That the twelve disciples of the Lord represented the
church, as to the all of faith and charity, in one complex,
as in like manner did the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 2129,
3354, 3488, 3858, 6397. That Peter, James, and John,
represented faith, charity and the goods of charity, in their
order, n. 3750. That Peter represented faith, n. 4738,
6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580. And John the goods of
charity; Pref to c. xviii. and xxii. of Genesis. That in
the last times, there would be no faith in the Lord, because
no charity, was represented by Peter's denying the Lord
three times, before the cock crew thrice; for Peter there in
a representative sense is faith, n. 6000, 6073. That cock*
crowing, as well as twilight, signifies in the Word the last
time of the church, n. 10134. And that three, or thrice,
signify completion to the end, n. 2788, 4495, 5159, 5198,
10127. The like is signified by what the Lord said to Pe- .
ter, when Peter saw John following the Lord; *' What is it
to thee, Peter? Do thou follow Me, John;" for Peter said of
John, "What is he?" John xxi. 21, 22, n. 10087. That John
rested on the breast of the Lord, because he represented
BABtLON WHICH HAS BEEN PESTAOTED. 35
the goods of charity, n. 3934, 10081. That all the names
of persons and places in the Word signify things abstracted
from them, n. 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329.
Of Charity. Thai heaven is distinguished into two
kingdoms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and
the other the spiritual; love in the celestial kingdom is love
to the Lord, and is called celestial love; and love in the
spiritual kingdom is charity towards the neighbor, and is
called spiritual love, n. 3325, 3653, T257, 9002, 9833, 9961.
That heaven is distinguished into those two kingdoms, may
be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 20 to 28.
And that the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to
Him, and charity towards the neighbor, n. 13 to 19, in the
same work.
That it is not known what good and truth are, unless it bo
known what love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor
are, because all good is of love and charity, and all truth ia
of good, n. 7255, 7366. That to know truths, to will truths,
and to be affected by truths for truth's sake, that is, because
they are truths, is charity, n. 3876, 3877. That charity
consists in an internal affection of doing truth, and not ia
an external affection without it, n. 2430, 2442, 3776, 4899,
4956, 8033. That therefore charity consists in performing
uses for the sake of uses, and that its kind is according to
the uses, n. 7038, 8253. That charity is man's spiritual
life, n. 7081. That the whole Word is the doctrine of love
and charity; n. 6632, 7262. That men at this day do not
know what charity is, n. 2417, 3398, 4776, 6632. That
still it may be known from the light of reason, that love and
charity constitute man, n. 3957, 6273. Also that good and
truth accord, that the one belongs to the other; therefore
that charity and faith do the like, n. 7627.
That in the supreme sense the Lord is the Neighbor, be-
cause He is to be loved above all things; hence that every
thing proceeding from Him, which contains Him (quod ab
Ipso est in quo Ipse) is the neighbor; therefore that goo<f
and truth are, n. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8 124. That
the distinction of neighbor is according to the kind of good;
thus according to the Presence of the Lord, n. 6707, 6708,
6709, 6710. That every man, and every society, also our
country, and the church, and in a universal sense the king**
»dom of the Lord, are the neighbor; and that to do well by
them, from the good of love, according to their several
states, is to love the neighbor; thus that the neighbor is
that good of theirs, which we ought to consult, n. 6818 to
6824, 8123. That civil good, which is justice, and moral
36 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
good, which is the good of life in society, are also th&
neighbor, n. 2915, 4730, 8120, 8121, 8122. That to love
the neighbor is not to love the person, but that in him which
makes him the neighbor, that is, good and truth, n. 5025,
10336. That they who love the person, and not that which
makes the neighbor in him, love evil as well as good, n.
3820. And that they do service to the wicked as well as to
the good, when yet to serve the wicked is to injure the
good, and this is not to love the neighbor, n. 3320, 6703,
8120. That the judge who punishes the wicked to amend
them, and lest they should corrupt the good, loves the
neighbor, n. 3820, 8120, 8121.
That to love the neighbor is to do what is good, just, and
upright in every work, and in every function, n. 8120, 8121,
8122. Hence, that charity towards the neighbor extends
itself, both in general and in particular, to all that a man
thinks, wills, and does, n. 8124. That to do good and truth
for the sake of good and truth, is to love the neighbor, n.
10310, 10336. That they who do this, love the Lord, Who
in the supreme sense, is the Neighbor, n. 9212. That a
life of charity is a life according to the Lord's precepts;
so that to live according to Divine Truths, is to love the
Lord, n. 10143, 10153, 10310, 10578, 10648.
That genuine charity does not appropriate merit, n. 2340,
2373, 2400, 3887, 6388 to 6393. Because it is from an in-
ternal affection, thus from joy in dbing good, n. 2373, 2400,
3887, 6388, 6393. That they who separate faith from char-
ity, in the other life make a merit of faith, and of the good
works they did, as matters of external form, n. 2373.
That the doctrine of the ancient church was the doctrine
of life, which is the doctrine of charity, n. 2385, 2487, 3419,
3420, 4844, 6628. That the ancients, who belonged to the
church, arranged the goods of charity in order, and distin-
guished them into classes, giving names to each, and that
this was the source of their wisdom, n. 2417, 6629, 7259 to
7262. That wisdom and intelligence increase immensely in
the other life, with those who have lived a life of charity in
the world, n. 1941, 5859. That the Lord inflows with Di-
vine Truth into charity, because into the very life of man,
D. 2363. That man is as a garden, when charity and faith
are conjoined in him, but as a desert when they are not
conjoined, n. 7626. That man recedes from wisdom, in
proportion as he recedes from charity, n. 6630. That they
who are not in charity, are in ignorance of Divine Truths,
howsoever wise they may think themselves, n. 2416, 2435.
That the angelic life consists in performing the goods of
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 37
charity which are uses, n. 454. That the spiritual angels
are forms of charity, n. 553, 3804, 4735.
Of the Will and the Intellect. That man has two
faculties, one of which is called the intellect, and the other
the will, n. 35, 641, 3939, 10122. That those two faculties
make the man himself, n. 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264,
10284. That the man is such, as those two faculties are
in him, n. 7342, 8885, 9282, 10264, 10284. That by them
also man is distinguished from the beasts, because the intel-
lect of man may be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine
Truths, and his will may be elevated equally, and perceive
Divine Goods; and thus man may be conjoined to the Lord
by those faculties, which make him man; but that it is not
so w^th beasts, n. 4525, 5302, 5114, 6323, 9232. And since
man in that power is above the beasts, that he cannot die as
to his own interiors, which belong to his spirit, but that he
lives for ever, n. 5302.
That all things in the universe refer themselves to good
and truth; thus in man to the will and the intellect, n. 803,
10122. For the intellect is the recipient of truth, and the
will the recipient of good, n. 3332, 3623, 5332, 6065, 6125,
7503, 9300, 9930. It amounts to the same whether you say
truth, or faith, for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith; and
also whether you say good, or love, for love is of good, and
good is of love; for what a man believes, he calls truth;
and what he loves, he calls good, n. 4353, 4997, 7178,
10122, 10367. Hence it follows, that the intellect is the
recipient of faith, and that the will is the recipient of love,
n. 7178, 10122, 10367. And since man's intellect maybe
receptive of faith towards God, and his will of love^ towards
God, that he may be conjoined to God by faith and love,
and whoso can be conjoined to God by faith and love, can
never die, n. 4525, 60*23, 9231.
That the will of man is the very esse of his life, since it
is the receptacle of love or good, and that the intellect is
the existere of his life derived from it, since it is the recep-
tacle of faith or truth, n. 3619, 5002, 9282. Thus that the
life of the will is the principal life of man, and that the life
of the intellect proceeds from it, n. 585, 590, 3619, 7342,
8885,9282, 10076, 10109, 10110. Just as light proceeds
from fire or flame, n. 6032, 6314. That the things which
enter the intellect and the will at the same time, are appro-
priated to man, but not those which enter the intellect alone,
n. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9129, 9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109,
10110. That those things become properties of man's life,
which are received by the will, n. 3161, 9386, 9393. Hence
38 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
it follows, that man is man from the will, and from its de-
rivative intellect, n. 8911, 9069, 9071, 10076, 10109, lOllO.
Every man moreover is loved and esteemed by others, ac-
cording to the good of his will and its derivative intellect;
for he who wills well, and understands well, is loved and
esteemed, but he who understands well, and does not will
well, is rejected and despised, n. 8911, 10076. That man
also ader death remains as his will, and its derivative intel-
lect are, n. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153. And that those things
which belong to the intellect, and not at the same time to
the will, then vanish away, because thoy are not in man, n.
9282. Or, what amounts to the same, that man remains
after death as his love, and its derivative faith are, or as his
good and its derivative truth are; and that the things which
belong to faith, and not at the same time to love, or the
things which belong to truth, and not at the same time to
good, then vanish away, because they are not in man, and
thus not of man, n. 553, 2364, 10153. That man may re-
ceive in the intellect what he does not do from the will, or
that he may understand what he cannot will, because it is
against his love, n. 3539. The reason why man scarcely
knows the distinction between thinking and willing, n. 9991.
How perverted is the state of those, whose intellect and
will do not act in unity, n. 9075. That such is the state of
hypocrites, of deceivers, of flatterers, and of dissemblers, n.
4326, 3573, 4799, 8250.
That all the will of good, and all the derivative under-
standing of truth, are from the Lord; not so the under-
standing of truth separated from the will of good, n. 1831,
3514, 5483, 5649, 6027, 8685, 870J, 10153. That it is the
intellect which is enlightened by the Lord, n. 6222, 6608,
10659. That the intellect is enlightened in as far as man
receives truth in the will, that is, in as far as he wills to do
according to it, n. 3619. That the intellect has light from
heaven, as the sight has light from the world, n. 1524,51 14,
6608, 9128. That the intellect is such, as are the truths
from good, of which it is formed, n. 10064. That that is
the intellect, which is from truths derived from good, but
not that which is from falses derived from evil, n. 10675.
That the intellect is the seeing, from matters of experience
and science, truths, the causes of things, connections, and
consequences, in series, n. 6125. That the intellect is the
seeing and perceiving whether a thing be truth before it is
confirmed, but not the being able to confirm every thing, n.
4741, 7012, 7680, 7950, 8521, 8780. That the seeing and
perceiving whether a thing be truth before confirmation, is
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 39
only given to those who are affected with truth for the sake
of truth, and are thus in spiritual light, n. 8521. That the
light of coufirmation is natural light, communicable even to
the wicked, n. 8780. That all dogmas, even false ones,
may be confirmed, until they appear like truths, n. 2482,
2490, 5033, 6865, 7950.
THAT ALL THE THINGS, WHICH ARE PREDICTED IN
THE APOCALYPSE, ARE AT THIS DAY FULFILLED.
40. No one can know what all the things which are con-
tained in the Apocalypse signify and involve, unless he knows
the internal or spiritual sense of the Word; for every thing
there is written in a style similar to that of the prophecies of
the Old Testament, in which each word signifies some spir-
itual thing, which is not apparent in the sense of the letter.
Besides, the contents of the Apocalypse cannot be explained
as to their spiritual sense, except by one, who also knows
how it went with the church even down to its end, which
can only be known in heaven, and is the thing contained in
the Apocalypse : for the spiritual sense of the Word treats
every where of the spiritual world, that is of the state of the
church in the heavens, as well as in the countries of the
earth; hence the Word is Spiritual and Divine. It is this ^
state which is there expounded in its own order. Hence it
may appear, that the things contained in the Apocalypse can
never be explained by any one but him, to whom a revela-
tion has been made concerning the successive states of the
church in the heavens: for there is a church in the heavens
as well as on the earth, of which something shall be said in
the following articles.
41. The quality of the Lord's church in the countries of
the earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in
the world, — still less how the church in process of time has
turned aside from good to evil. The reason is, that man
whilst he is living in the world, is in externals, and only sees
those things which are palpable to his natural man; but the
quality of the church as to spiritual things, which are its
internals, does not appear in the world; yet it does appear
in heaven as in clear day, for the angels are in spiritual
thought, and also in spiritual sight, and hence see none
other than spiritual things. Furthermore, all the men who
have been born in this world from the beginning of creation
are together in the spiritual world, (as shewn above) and are
40 OF TBE ]«A0T JUDGMENT, AND THE
•II there distin|^ished into societies aecording to the goods
of love and faith, (as may be seen in the work on Heaven
aoid Hell, n. 41 to 50) whence it is that the state of the
church, and its progressions, are manifest in heaven before
the angels. Now since the state of the church as to love
and faith is described in the spiritual sense of the Apoca-
lypse, therefore no one can know what all the things in its
series involve, but he to whom it has been revealed from
heaven, and to whom at the same time has been imparted a
knowledge of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word.
This I can asseverate, that each thing there, nay, that every
word, contains within it a spiritual sense, and that the all
of the church, as to its spiritual state from the beginning to
the end, is fully described in that sense; and because every
word there signifies some spiritual thing, therefore not a
word can be wanting without the series of things in the
internal sense thereby sufiering a change; on which ac-
count, at the end of that Book, it is said, ** If any one shall
take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,
God will take away his part from the Book of Life, and from
that holy city, and from those things which are written in
that Book.'' Rev. xxii. 19. It is the same with the books of
the Old Testament ; in them also every thing, and every
word, contains an internal or spiritual sense, wherefore not
one word can be taken away from them either. Hence it is
that, of the Lord's Divine Providence, those books have
been preserved entire to an iota since the time in which
they were written, and that by the care of many who have
enumerated their minutest particulars; this was provided by
the Lord on account of the sanctity which is within each
iota, letter, word, and thing they contain.
42. Since in like manner there is an internal or spiritual
sense in'every word in the Apocalypse, and since that sense
contains the arcana of the state of the church in the heav-
ens, and on the earth; and since those arcana can be re-
vealed to no one, but to him who knows that sense, and to
whom at the same time it has been granted to have consort
with the angels, and to speak spiritually with them, there-
fore, lest the things which are therein written should be
hidden'to men, and should hereafter be disregarded, because
they are not understood, its contents have been disclosed to
me; but they are too numerous to be described in this little
work; on which account I am desirous of explaining the
whole book from beginning to end, and of unveiling the
arcana which are within it: and the explication shall be pub-
lished in less than two years, together with certain things in
BABTLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 41
DaDiel, which have hitherto lain hiddeo, because their spir-
itual sense was unknown.
43. He who knows not the internal or spiritual sense,
never can divine what is meant in the Apocaljpse by the
dragon, and by the battle of Michael and his angels with it;
what by the tail with which the dragon drew down the third
part of the stars from heaven ; what by the woman who
brought forth the man-child which was caught up to God,
and whom the dragon persecuted; what by the beast as^
cending from the sea, and the beast ascending from the
earth, which had so many horns; what by the whore, with
whom the kings of the earth committed whoredom ; what by
the first and second resurrection, and by the thousand years;
what by the lake of sulphur and of fire, into which the
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet were cast; what by
the white horse; also what by the former heaven, and the
former earth which passed away; and what by the new
heaven and the new earth, in the place of the former; and
by the sea, which was no more; or what by the city New
Jerusalem descending from heaven, and by its measures,
wall, gates, and foundation of precious stones; what by the
various numbers; besides other things, which are the veri-
est mysteries (arcanissima) to those who know nothing of
the spiritual sense of the Word. But the meaning of all
theso things shall be unfolded in the promised explication
on that book.
44. It has been remarked before, that all the things which
are contained in that book, in the heavenly sense, are now
fulfilled: in this little work I will deliver some general ac-
count of the last judgment, the Babylon destroyed, the first
heaven and the first earth which passed away, the new
heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem; in order
that it may be known, that all its predictions are now accom-
plished. But the details c^n only be delivered, where all
these things are explained according to the description of
them in the Book oi^ Revelation.
THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
45. It was shewn above, in the article for the purpose,
that the last judgment does not exist on the earth, but in
the spiritual world, where all who have lived from the begin-
ning of creation are together; and since it is so, it is im-
possible for any man to know when the last judgment is
accomplished, for every one expects it to exist on earth,
42 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
acompanied by a change of all things in the visible heaven
and in the countries of the earth and in mankind who dwell
there. Lest therefore the man of the church from igno-
rance should live in such a belief, and lest they who think
of a last judgment should expect it for ever, whence at
length the belief of those things which are said of it in the
literal sense of the Word must perish, and lest haply there-
fore many should recede from their faith in the Word, it has
been granted me to see with my own eyes that the last judg-
ment is now accomplished; that the evil are cast into the
hells, and the good elevated into heaven, and thus that all
things are reduced into order, the spiritual equilibrium be-
tween good and evil, or between heaven and hell being
thence restored. It was granted me to see from beginning
to end how the last judgment was accomplished, and also how
the Babylon was destroyed, how those who are understood
by the dragon were cast into the abyss, and how the new heav-
en was formed, and a new church instituted in the heavens,
which is understood by the New Jerusalem. It was granted
me to see all these things with my own eyes, in order that I
might be able to testify of them. This last judgment was
commenced in the beginning of the year 1757, and was fully
accomplished at the end of that year.
46. But it ought to be known that the last judgment was
effected«upon those who had lived from the Lord's time to
this day, but not upon those who had lived before: for a last
judgment had twice before existed on this earth. Of these
two judgments, the one is described in the Word by the
flood, the other was effected by the Lord Himself when He
was in the world, which moreover is understood by the
Lord's words, " Now is the judgment of this world, now is
the prince of this world cast out," John xii. 31 ; and by His
words, " These things I have spoken unto you that in Me
ye may have peace; be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.'* John xvi. 33; and also by these words in Isaiah,
" Who is this that cometh from Edom, walking in the multi-
tude of his strength, great to save.'* I have trodden the
wine press alone, therefore I have trodden them in my an-
ger; whence their victory is sprinkled upon my garments,
for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed has come; therefore He became a Savior;" Isaiah
Ixiii. 1 to 8: and in many other places. A last judgment
has twice before existed on this earth, because every judg-
ment exists at the end of a church, [as shewn above in an
article for the purpose,] and there have been two churches
on this earth, one before the flood, and one after it. The
BABTLON WBiC» HAS BB&M DBftTROTED. 43
church before the flood is described in the beginning of
Genesis by the new creation of the heaven and the land,
and by paradise; its end, by the eating of the tree of sci-
ence, and the subsequent particulars; and its last judgment
by the flood; the whole by mere correspondences, according
to the style of the Word ; in the internal or spiritual sense
of which, by the creation of the heaven and the land, the
institution of a new church is understood, [see the first arti-
cle] ; by the paradise in Eden, its celestial wisdom ; by the
tree of science, and by the serpent, the scientific which de«-
«troyed it; and by the flood, the last judgment upon the
men of whom it consisted. But the other church, which
was after the flood, is Also described in certain passages in
the Word, as in Deut. xxxii. 7 to 14, and elsewhere. This
church was extended through much of the Asiatic world,
and was continued among the posterity of Jacob. Its end
was, when the Lord came into the world. A last judgment
was then eflTected by Him upon all who belonged to that
church from its first institution; and, at the same time, upon
the residue of the first church. The Lord came into the
world for that end, to reduce all things in the heavens into
order, and all things in the countries of the earth, by means
of the heavens, and at the same time to make His Human
Divine; for if this had not been done, no man could have
been saved. That there were two churches on this earth
before the Lord's advent, is shewn in various passages in
the Arcana Ccelestia, a collection of which may be seen
below ;*" and that the Lord came into the world to reduce
mThat the first and most ancient church on this earth was that which
is described in the first chapters of Genesis, and that it was a celestial
charch, the chiet of all the churches, n. 607, 895, 920, 1121, 1122, 1123,
1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545. What they who were of that
church are in heaven, n. 1114, to 1125. That they are in the greatest
liffht theie, n. 1117. That there were various churches after the flood,
waich are called, in one word, the ancient church, n. 1125, 1126, 1127,
1327, 10355. Through what kingdoms of Asia the ancient church was
extended, n. 1238, 2385. What manner t>f men they of the ancient
church were, n. 60^), 895. That the ancient church was a representativo
church, n. 519, 5^1 ,2896. What the ancient church was, when it begali
to decline, n. 1128. The distinction between the most ancient and an-
cient churches, n. 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493. Of the
church that commenced from Eber, which was called the Hebrew
church n. 1238, 1241, 1343, 4516,4517. The distinction between the
ancient and the Hebrew churches, n. 1343, 4874. Of the church insti-
tuted among the posterity of Jacob, or children of Israel, n. 4281, 4288,
4310,4500,4899,4912, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10^96, 10636, 10531, 10698.
That the statutes, judgments, and laws, which were commanded among
the children of Israel, were in part like those which existed in the an*
cient church, n. 4449. In what nuuiner the representative rites of the
4#
44 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
all thiags in the heavens into order, and all things in the
countries of the earth by means of the heavens, and to make
His Human Divine, is also shewn there.'' The third church
on this earth is the Christian. Upon this church, and, at
the same time, upon all those who had been in the first
heaven since the Lord's time, the last judgment, of which I
now treat, was effected.
47. The manner in which this last judgment was effected
cannot be described in all its details in this little work, for
they are many, but shall be described in the explication on
the Apocalypse. For the judgment was accomplished not
only upon all the men of the Christian church, but also up-
on all who are called Mahometans, and, moreover, upon all
the Gentiles in the whole circle of the earth; and it was
effected in this order: — iirst upon those of the Papal reli-
gion; then upon the Mahometans; aflerwards upon the
Gentiles; and lastly upon the Reformed. The judgment
upon the Papists shall be shewn in the following article, on
THE Babylon which has b&en destroycd; the judgment
upon the Reformed in the article on the fuelst Heaven
church which was instituted among the children of Israel, differed from
the representative rites of the ancient church, n. 4288, I0I49. That in
the most ancient church there was immediate revelation from heaven ;
in the ancient church revelation by correspondences ; in the church
among the children of Israel by an audible voice ; and in the christian
church by the Word, n. 10355. That the Lord was the God of tlie most
ancient church, and also of the ancient church, and was called Jehovah,
n. 1343, 6848.
■» Tkat the Lord, when He was in the world, reduced all things in the
heavens and in the hells into order, n. 4075, 4286, 9937. That tlie Lord
then freed the spiritual world from the Antediluvians, n. ISGti. What
manner of men they were, n. 310, 311, 500, 5(52, 508, 570, 581, 586, 607,
660, 805, 808, 1034, 1 120, 1265 to 1272. That the Lord by temptations
and victories subjugated the hells, and reduced all things into order, and
at the same time Glorified His Human, n. 4287, 9397. That the Lord
effected this by Himself, or by His own Power, n. 1692, 9937. That the
Lord alone fought, n. 8273. That hence the Lord alone became Right-
eousness and Merit, n. 1813, 2025, 2026, 2027, 9715, 9!5a9, 10019. That
thus the Lord united His Human with tlie Divine, n. 1725, 1729, 1733,
1737, 331 8, 3381 , 3382, 4286. That the passion of the cross was the last
temptation, and plenary victory, by which He Glorified Himself, that is,
made His Human Divine, and subjugated the hells, n. 2776, 10655,
10659, 10829. That the Lord could not be tempted as to the Essential
Divine, n. 2795, 2803, 2813, 2814. That therefore He asswned a human
from the mother, into which He admitted temptations, n. 1414,1444,
1573, 5041 , 5157, 7193, 9315. That he expelled whatever was heredi-
tary from the mother, and put off the human He received from her,
even until He was her son no longer, and that He put on the Human
Divine, n. 2159, 2574, 2049, 3036, 10829. Tha' the Lord saved mankind
by the subjugation of the hells, and the Glorification of Hia Human, n.
4180, 10019, 10152, 10655, 10659, 10628.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 45
WHICH PASSED AWAY ; but Something shall be said in this ar-
ticle, on the judgment upon the Mahometans and Gentiles.
48. The following was seen to be the arrangement in the
spiritual world of all the nations and people to be judged.
Collected in the middle, appeared those who are called the
Reformed, where they were also distinct according to their
countries; the Germans there towards the north; the Swedes
there towards the west ; the Danes in the west ; the Dutch
towards the east and the north ; the English in the centre.
Surrounding this whole mid-region of the Reformed, ap-
peared collected those of the Papal religion, the greater
part of them in the western, some part in the southern quar-
ter. Beyond them were the Mahometans, also distinct ac-
cording to their countries, who all appeared in the south-west.
Beyond these, the Cientiles were congregated in vast num-
bers, constituting the very circumference; and on their
outer side an appearance, as of a sea was the boundary.
This arrangement of the nations in the various quarters,
was an arrangement according to each nation's common
faculty of receiving Divine Truths; for in the spiritual
world every one is known from the quarter, and the part of
it, in which he dwells; and, moreover, in a society with
many, he is known from hjis tarry ings being made with a
reference to the quarters; concerning which, see the work
on Heaven and Hell, n. 148, 149. It is the same when
he goes from place to place; all advance to the quarters is
then effected according to the successive states of the
thoughts derived from the affections which belong to his
proper life [proprise] ; in accordance with which all those
who are spoken of in what follows were led to their own
places. In a word, the ways in which every one walks in
the spiritual world are actual determinations of the thoughts
of the mind; whence it is, that ways, walkings, and the like,
in the spiritual sense of the Word, signify the determinations
and progressions of spiritual life.
49. In the Word, the four quarters are called the four
winds, and a gathering is called a gathering from the four
winds: as in Matthew, where the last judgment is the sub-
ject treated of, *' He shall send his angels, and they shall
gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end
of the heavens to the other:" xxiv. 31 ; and elsewhere,
*' All nations shall be gathered together before the Son of
Man, and He shall separate them one from another, as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He shall
set the sheep on the right, and the goats on the lefl," Mat-
thew XXV. 31, 32; which signifies that the Lord will then
46 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
separate those who are in truths and at the same time in
good, from those who are in truths and not in good ; for in
the spiritual sense of the Word, the right signifies good, and
the left truth, and sheep and goats the same. The last
judgment was effected upon these alone; the evil who were
in no truths being in the hells already; for all the wicked
who have denied the Divine in their hearts, and have re-
jected the truths of the church as incredible, are cast thither
when they die, and therefore before the judgment. The
first heaven which passed away, consisted of those who
were in truths, and not in good, and the new heaven waa
formed of those who were in truths, and at the same time in
good.
50. As regards the judgment upon the Mahometans and
Gentiles, which is treated of in this article, it was thus ef-
fected. The Mahometans were led forth from their places,
where they were gathered together in the south-west, by a
way round the Christians, from the west, through the north,
to the east, as far as its southern confine; and the good were
separated from the evil in the way: the evil being cast into
marshes and lakes, many too being scattered about in a
certain far desert. But the good were led through the east
to a land of great extent near the south, and habitations
were there given them. They who were led thither had in
the world acknowledged the Lord as the greatest Prophet,
and as the Son of God, and had believed that He was sent
by the Father to instruct mankind, and at the same time had
lived a life moral-spiritual, in accordance with their religion
freligiosum]. Most of these, when instructed, receive faith
in the Lord, and acknowledge Him to be One with the Fa-
ther. Communication is also granted them with the Christ-
ian heaven, by influx from the Lord; but they are not com-
mingled with it, because religion separates them. All of
that religion, as soon as they come into the other life among
their own, first seek Mahomet, yet he appears not, but in
his place two others, who call themselves Mahomets, and
who have obtained seats in the middle, under the Christian
heaven, towards the left part of it. These two are in the
place of Mahomet, because all aAer death, whatever be
their religion, are first led to those they had worshiped in
the world, (for every one's religion adheres to him), but
secede on perceiving that these can render them no assist-
ance. They are thus yielded up into their own religion at
first, as the only possible means of efiecting their with-
drawal from it. Where Mahomet himself is, and what he
18, and whence come those two who fill his place, shall be
told in the book in which the Apocalypse is explained.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 47
51. The judgment was efTected upon the Gentiles in
nearly the same manner as upon the Mahometans; but they
were not led like them in a circuit, but only a short way in
the west, where the evil were separated from the good, the
evil being there cast into two great gulfs, which stretched
obliquely into the deep. But the good were conducted
above the middle where the Christians were, towards the
land of the Mahometans in the eastern quarter, and dwell-
ings were given them behind and beyond the Mahometans,
to a great extent in the southern quarter. But those of the
Gentiles who in the world had worshiped God under a hu-
man form, and had led lives of charity according to their
religious principles, were conjoined with Christians in heav-
en, for they acknowledge and adore the Lord more than
others; the most intelligent of them are from Africa. The
multitude of the Gentiles and Mahometans who appeared
was so great, that it could be numbered only by myriads.
The judgment on this vast multitude was effected in a few
days, for every one after being yielded up into his own love
and into his own faith, is immediately destined and carried
to his like.
52. From all these particulars appears the truth of the
Lord's prediction concerning the last judgment, that *' they
shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the
north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the king-
dom of God." Luke xiii. 29.
OF THE BABYLON AND ITS DESTRUCTION.
53. That all the things which are predicted in the Apoc-
alypse are at this day fulfilled, may be seen above, n. 40 to
44; and that the last judgment has already been accom-
plished, may be seen in the preceding article; where it is
also shewn how the judgment was effected upon the Ma-
hometans and Gentiles. Now follows an account of the
manner in which it was effected upon the Papists, who are
understood by the Babylon which is treated of in many
parts of the Apocalypse, and whose destruction is the spe-
cial subject of the 18th chapter, where it is thus described,
" An angel cried vehemently with a great voice, Babylon
hath fallen, hath fallen, and is become the habitation of
devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of
every unclean and hateful bird." v. 2. But before it is told
how that destruction we^s effected, I shall preipise, — '
48 OP THB LAST JUDGMKNT, AND THfi
I. What is understood by the Babylon, and the manner of
thing it is. (et qaale ejus.)
li. What manner of men they of the Babylon are in the
tocher life.
III. Where their habitations have hitherto been.
IV. Why they were there tolerated until the day of the
last judgment.
V. The mode in which they were destroyed, and their
habitations made a desert.
VI. That all those among them who were in the affection
of truth from good were preserved.
VII. Of the state of those hereafter who come thence
from the countries of the earth.
64. What is understood by the Babylon and the manner of
thing it is. By the Babylon are understood all who will to
rule by religion [per religiosum]. To rule by religion, is to
rale over men's souls, thus over their very spiritual lives,
and to use the Divine things, which are in their religion, as
the means to rule. All those who have dominion for an end)
mnd religion for the means, in the general are Babylon*
They are called Babylon, because such dominion began
in ancient times; but it was destroyed in its beginning. Its
commencement is described by the city and the tower whose
head was to be in heaven; and its destruction, by the con»
fusion of lips, whence its name Babel was derived ; Genesta
xi. 1 to 9. What the particulars there related, mean in the
internal or spiritual sense of the Word, may be seen ex*
plained in the Arcana Cielestia, n. 1283 to 13!28. More-
over that this dominion began and was instituted in Babel,
appears in Daniel, where it is said of Nebuchadnezzar,
that he set up an image, which all were to adore, (chap,
iii.); and is understood by Belshazzar and his peers drink-
ing out of the golden and silvern vessels, which Nebuchad-
nezzar had carried away from the temple of Jerusalem, at
the same time that they worshiped gods of gold, silver,
copper, and iron ; wherefore it was written on the wall,
** He hath numbered, he hath weighed, he hath divided;"
and on the same night the king himself was slain (chap. v).
The vessels of gold and silver of the temple of Jerusalem,
signify the goods and truths of the church; drinking out of
them, and at the same time worshiping gods of gold, sil-
ver, copper, and iron, signify profanation; and the writing
upon the wall, and the death of the king signify visitation,
and destruction denounced against those who make use of
Divine Goods and Truths as means. What manner of meu
those who are called Babylon are, is also described contin-
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN 9E8TE0¥£D. 49
ually in the prophets; as in Isaiah, '' Thou mayest take up
this parable concerniog the king of Babylon; Jehovah hatb
broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers:
thou, Lucifer, hast fallen from heaven ; thou art cut down evea
to the earth; thou hast said in thy mind, I will ascend into
heaven ; I will exalt my throne over the stars of God, and
I will sit on the mountain of the convention, in the sides of
the north, I will become like the Most High. Nevertheless
thou shalt be cast down into hell, to the sides of the pit; I
will cut off the name and residue of Babylon, and will cause
her to become an hereditary possession of the bittern,'' xiv,
4, 12, 13, 14, 15, 23: and again it is said in the same book,
*^ The lion said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the
graven images of her god are cast down," xxi. 9; see
moreover the whole of chap, xlvii. and chap, xlviii. 14 to
20; and Jeremiah, chap. 1. 1, 2, 3. From these passages
it is evident what the Babylon is. It ought to be known
that the church becomes a Babylon when charity and faith
cease, and the love of self begins to rule in their stead;
for this love, in proportion as it is unchecked, lushes on,
aiming to dominate not merely over all whom it can subject
to itself on earth, but even over heaven; nor does it rest
there, but it climbs the very throne of God, and transfers to
itself His Divine Power. That it did this, even before the
Lord's coming, appears from the passages of the Word ad-
duced above. But the Babylon there treated of, was de-
stroyed by the Lord, when He was in the world, as well by
those who composed it being reduced to mere idolaters, as
by a last judgment upon them in the spiritual world, which
is understood by the prophetic sayings, that ^* Lucifer/'
who there is Babylon, '* was cast into hell," and that '* Ba-
bylon has fallen;" and moreover by the writing on the wall,
and the death of Belshazzar; and also by the stone, hewa
from the rock, which destroyed the statue, of which Nebu-
chadnezzar dreamed.
55. But the Babylon treated of in the Apocalypse, is the
Babylon of this day, which arose after the Lord's coming,
and is known to be among the Papists. This Babylon is
more pernicious, and more abominable than that which ex-
isted before the Lord's coming, because it profanes the inte-
rior goods and truths of the church, which the Lord revealed
to the world, when He revealed Himself. How pernicious,
how inwardly abominable it is, may appear from the follow-
ing summary. They who belong to it, acknowledge and
adore the Lord apart from all power of saving: they entirely
separate His Divine from His Human, and transfer to them-
50 OF THK LAST JUDGMENT, AND TUB
selves His Divine Power, which belonged to His Human ;^
for they remit sins; they send to heaven; they cast into
hell; they save whom they will; they sell salvation; thus
arrogating things to themselves which are properties of Di-
vine Power alone: and since they exercise this Power, it
follows that they make gods of themselves, each one accor-
ding to his station, by transference from their highest, whom
they call Christ's vicar, down to the lowest of them; thus
they regard themselves as the Lord, and adore Him, not for
His, but for their sakes. They not only adulterate and
falsify the Word, but even take it away from the people,
lest they should enter into the smallest light of truth; and
not satisfied with this, they moreover annihilate it, acknow-
ledging a divinity in the decrees of Rome, superior to the
Divine in the Word; so that they exclude all from the way
to heaven; for the acknowldgment of the Lord, faith in
Him, and love to Him, are the way to heaven; and the
Word is what teaches the way: whence it is, that without the
Lord, by the medium of the Word, there is no salvation.
They strive with all diligence to extinguish the light of
heaven, which is from Divine Truth, in order that ignorance
may exist in the place of it, and the denser the ignorance,
the more acceptable it is to them. They extinguish the light
of heaven by prohibiting the reading of the Word, and of
books which contain its doctrines; instituting worship by
masses destitute of Divine Truth, in a language unintelli-
gible to the common people; and besides, they fill their
world (orbem suum) with falses, those essential [ipsa] dark-
nesses, which remove and dissipate the light. They teach,
the vulgar moreover, that they have life (eternal) in the faith
of their priests, consequently not in their own, but in that
of other men. [ita in aliena et non in sui.] They also
place all worship in a devout external, apart from the inter-
nal, making the internal into vacuum, for they deprive it of
the knowledges of good and truth ; and yet Divine worship
is external, only in as far as it is internal, since the external
proceeds from the internal. Besides this, they introduce
idolatries of various kinds. They make and multiply saints;
they see and tolerate the adoration of these saints, and even
the prayers put up to them, almost as to gods; they expose
their idols in all sorts of places; boast of their multitudinous
« That the attribution by the church, of two natures to the Lord, and
the consequent separation of His Divine from His Human, was effected
in a council, on the Pope's account, that the Pope might be acknow-
ledged as the Lord's vicar, discovered from heaven in the Arcana Cob-
LE8TIA, n. 4738.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 51
miracles; set them over cities, temples, and monasteries;
make *sacrecl their bones — their veriest cast*away bones,
which have been taken out of sepulchres; thus averting the
animi of all from the worship of God, to the worship of
men. Moreover, they use much artful precaution lest any
one should come out of their darkness into light, and from
idolatrous to Divine worship; for they multiply monasteries,
6rom which they send out spies and guards in all directions;
they extort the confessions of the heart, which are also con-
fessions of the thoughts and intentions, and if any one will
not confess, they frighten his animus with infernal fire and
torments in purgatory; and those who dare to speak against
the Papal throne, and their dominion, they shut up in a hor-
rible gaol, which is called the Inquisition. All this they do
for one sole end; — that they may possess the world and its
treasures, and live in congenial delights, (vivant genio) and
be the mightiest of men, whilst the rest are their slaves.
But domination such as this, is not that of heaven over hell,
but of hell over heaven, for in as far as the love of ruling
prevails in man, especially in the man of the church, in so
far hell reigns. That this -love reigns in hell, and makes
hell, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n.
561 to 665. From this summary it may appear that they
have no church, but a Babylon among them. The church
is, where the Lord Himself is worshiped, and where the
Word is read.
66. Whutl manner of men they of the Babylon are in the
other life, can be apparent only to one who has been allowed
by the Lord to be together with those who are in the spirit-
ual world: since this has been granted to me, I am able to
Apeak from experience, for I have seen them, I have heard
them, and I have spoken with them. Every man after death
is in a life similar to his life in the world ; this cannot be
changed, save only as regards the delights of the love,
which are turned into correspondent things, as may appear
from two articles in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 470
to 484; and n. 486 to 490. The same holds of the life of
those now treated of, which is altogether such as it was in
the world, with this difference, that the hidden things of
their hearts are there uncovered, for they are in the spirit,
in which reside the interior things of the thoughts and inten-
tions, which they had concealed in the world, and had cov-
ered over with a devout external. And, since these hidden
things were now laid open, it was perceived that more than
half of those, who had usurped the power of opening and
shutting heaven, were downright atheists; but since domia-
5
K OF THE LAST JU0GMKNT, ANO TBC
ion is rooted in their animi as in the world, and is based on
this, that all power was given by the Father to the Lord
Himself, and that it was transferred to Peter, and by order
of succession to the heads of the church, therefore an oral
confession about the Lord remains adjoined to their atheism ;
but even this remains only so long, as they enjoy some do-
minion by means of it. But the rest of them, who are not
atheists, are so empty (tarn vacui), as to be entirely ignorant
of man's spiritual life, of the means of salvation, of the Di*
vine Truths which lead to heaven; and they know nothing
at all of heavenly love and faith, believing that heaven may
be granted of the Pope's grace to any one, whatever he be.
Now since every one is in a life in the spiritual world, simi-
lar to his life in the natural world, without any difference,
80 long as he is neither in heaven nor in hell, (as is shewn,
and may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 453
to 480), and since the spiritual world, as regards its exter-
nal appearance, is altogether like the natural world, (n. 170
to 176), therefore they also live a similar moral and civil
life, and above all have similar worship, for this is inradica-
ted in, and inheres to man in his inmost, nor can any af\er
death be withdrawn from it, except he be in good from truths,
and in truths from good. But it is more difficult to with-
draw the nation now treated of from its own worship, than
other nations, because it is not in good from truths, and still
less in truths from good; for its truths are not derived from
the Word, with the exception of some few, which it has
falsified by applying them to dominion; and hence it has
none other than spurious good, for such as the truths are,
such does the good become. These things are said, in
order that it may be known, that the worship of this nation,
in the spiritual world; is altogether similar to its worship in
the natural world. Premising this, I will now relate some
particulars of the worship and life of the Papists in the spir-
itual world. They have a certain session, in place of the
session or consistory at Rome, in which their leaders meet,
and consult on various matters touching their religion,
especially on the means of holding the vulgar in blind obe-
dience, and of enlarging their own dominion. This session
is situated in the southern quarter, near the east, but none
who have been Popes or Cardinals in the world dare to en-
ter it, because the semblance of Divine authority possesses
their animi, from their having in the world arrogated the
Lord's power to themselves; wherefore, as soon as ever
they present themselves there, they are carried out, and
cast to their like in a desert. But those among them, who
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DBSTBOTBD. 53
have been of sincere animus^ and have not, from belief con-
iinned, usurped such power, are in a certain obscure cham*
ber, situate behind this session. There is another conven-
tion in the western quarter, near the north; the business
there, is the intromission of the credulous vulgar into heav*
en. They there dispose around them a number of societies
which live in various external jollities; in some of the soci*
eties they play, in some they dance, in some they compose
the face into the various expressions of hilarity and mirth*
fulness; in some they converse, friend-like; in some they
discuss civil, in others religious matters; in other societies
again they talk obscenities; and so on. They admit their
dependents into such one of these societies as each may
desire, and call it heaven; but all of them, after being there
a few hours, are wearied and depart, because those joys
are external, and not internal: in this way, moreover, many
are withdrawn from a belief in their doctrinal concerning
intromission into heaven. As regards their worship in par*
ticular, it is almost like their worship in the world; as in
the world, it consists in masses, not performed in the com-*
mon language of spirits, but in one composed of lofty-
sounding words, which induce an external devoutness and
awe, and are utterly unintelligible. In like manner they
adore saints, and expose idols to view; but their saints are
nowhere to be seen, for all those who have sought to be
worshiped as gods, are in hell; the rest who did not seek it,
are among common spirits. This their prelates know, for
they seek and iind them, and when found they despise them;
yet conceal it from the people, that the saints may still be
worshiped as tutelar gods, but that the primates themselves,
who rule over the people, may be worshiped as the lords of
heaven. In like manner, moreover, they multiply churches
and monasteries as they did in the world, they scrape to«-
gether riches, and accumulate costly, things, which they
hide in cellars; for costly things exist in the spiritual, as
well as in the natural world, and far more abundantlv. In
like manner they send forth monks, to allure the Gentiles to
their religion, in order that they may subject them to their
rule. They commonly have towers of espial erected in the
middle of their assemblies, from which they are enabled to
enjoy an extended vision into all the surrounding region:
and moreover, by various means and arts they establish for
themselves communications with persons far and near, join-
ing in league with them, and drawing th«m over to their
own party. Such is their state in general; but as to par-
ticulars, many prelates of that religion take away all power
54 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
from the Lord, and claim it for themselves, and doing this,
they acknowledge no Divine. They still counterfeit a de-
voutness in externals; yet this devoutness in itself is pro^
iane, because in their internals there is no acknowledgment of
the Divine. Hence it is that they communicate with cer-
tain societies of the ultimate heaven by^ devout external,
and with the hells by a profane internal, so that they are at
once in either (utrobivis): on which account, moreover,
they allure simple good spirits, and appoint them habitations
near themselves, and also congregate evil spirits, and dis-
pose them around the society in all directions, by the simple
good conjoining themselves with heaven, and by the evil
with hell. Hence they are enabled to accomplish abomina-
tions, which they^ perpetrate from hell. For the ^ simple
good who are in the ultimate heavens, look only to their
devotional external, and their very devout adoration of the
Lord in outward things, but they see not their wickedness,
and therefore they favor them, and this favor from the good
is their greatest protection ; yet in process of time they all
recede from their devout external, and then, being separated
from heaven, they are cast into hell. It may now be known
in some degree, what manner of men they of the Babylon
are in the other life. But I am aware that they who are in
this world, and have no idea of man's state afler death, of
heaven, or of hell, but an inane and an empty one, will
wonder at the existence of such things in the spiritual world.
But, that man is equally a man after death, that he lives in
fellowships as he did in the world, that he inhabits houses,
hears preaching in churches, discharges duties, and sees
things in that world, similar to those in the former world he
has lefl, may appear from all that has been said and shewn
of the things I have heard and seen, in the work on Heaven
and Hell.
57. I have spoken with certain of that nation, concerning
the keys given to Peter; whether they believed that the
power of the Lord over heaven and earth was transferred to
him? and because this was a fundamental of their religion,
they vehemently insisted on it, saying, that there was no
doubt about it, because it was manifestly said so. But when
I asked them whether they knew that in each expression of
the Word there is a spiritual sense, which is the sense of
the Word in heaven, they said at first, that they did not
know it, but afterwards they said they would inquire; and
on inquiring, they were instructed that there is a spiritual
sense within each expression of the Word, which diflTers
from the sense of the letter, as spiritual differs from natural;
fiABTLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED* 65
«ind they were also instructed that no person named in the
Word is named in heaven, but that some spiritual thing is
there understood in place of him: finally, they were in-
formed, that instead of Peter in the Word is understood the
truth of the faith of the church, derived from the good of
charity, and that the same is understood by a rock, which is
there named with Peter, for it is said, ** Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock will I build my Church," Matt. xvi. 18;
by which is not understood that any power was given to
Peter, but that power is the property of truth derived from
good; for in the heavens, all power is in truth from good, or
from good by means of truth, and since all good, and all
truth are from the Lord, and nothing from man, that all
power is from the Lord. When they heard this, they replied
indignantly, that they wished to be certain whether or no
that spiritual sense is contained in the words, whereupon the
Word which is in heaven was given them, in which Word
there is not the natural sense, but the spiritual, because it is
for the angels, who are spiritual; (that there is such a Word
in heaven, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell,
n. 259 to 261); and when they read it, they saw manifestly
that Peter is not named there, but truth from good, which
proceeds from the Lord, instead of him.^ Seeing this, they
rejected it with anger, and would have torn it in pieces with
their teeth, had it not instantly been taken away from them.
Hence they were convinced, although unwilling to be con-
vinced, that that power is the property of the Lord alone,
and cannot belong to any man, because it is a Divine Power.
58. Where their habitations in the spiritual world have hith^
P From the Arcaita Ccelestia. That the twelve disciples of the
Lord represented the church as to the all of truth and good, or of faith
and love, as in like manner did the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 2179, 3354,
3488, 3858, G397. That Peter, James, and John, represented faith,
churity, and the goods of charity, n. 3750. That Peter represented
faith, n. 4738, 6000, 6073, 6344, 10087, 10580. That the keys of the
kingdom of heaven being given to Peter, signifies that all power is
£Wen to truth from good, or to faith from charity, proceedii^ from the
,ord ; thus that all power belongs to the Lord, n. 6.M4. That a key
signifies the power of 0))ening and shutting, n. 9410. That all power is
in good by truths, or in truths from good, proceeding from the Lord, n.
3091, 3563, 6344, 6413, 6948, 8200, 8304, 9327, 9410.9639, 9643, 10019,
10182. That a rock in the Word signifies the Lord as to Divine Truth,
n. 8581, 10580. That all names of persons and places in the Word sig-
nify things and states, n. 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329. That their
names do not enter heaven, but are turned into the things they signiff ,
and that they cannot be pronounced in heaven, n. 1878, 5225, 6516,
10216, 10282. The delicate fitness of the internal sense of the Word,
where mere names occur in the letter, illustrated by examples, n. 1224,
1264, 1886.
6*
56 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT^ AND THE
erlo been. It was said above, n. 48, that all the nations and
people ill the spiritual world were seen to be thus arranged;
-^-collected in the middle those who are called the Reformed;
around this middle, those of the Papal religion; the Ma-
hometans beyond them; and the various Gentiles in the
outmost circuit. Hence it may appear that the Papists
formed the nearest circumference around the Reformed in
the centre. The reason of this was, that thev who are in
the light of truth from the Word are in the centre, and they
who are in the light of truth from the Word are also in the
light of heaven, for the light of heaven is from Divine
Truth, of which the Word is the continent. That the light
of heaven is from Divine Truth, may be seen in the work
on Heaven and Hell, n. 126 to 140, and That it is Divine
Truth, n. 303 to 310. Light, moreover, proceeds from the
centre towards the circumferences, and illuminates. Hence
it is that the Papists proximately surround the centre, for
they have the Word, and it is also read by the rulers of
their church, though not by the people. This is the reason
why the Papal nation in the spiritual world have habitations
around those who are in the light of truth from the Word.
Their manner of dwelling, before their habitations were
utterly destroyed, and made into a desert, shall now be told.
The greatest part of them dwelt in the south and in the
west; only a small part in the north and in the east. In
the South dwelt those, who had been possessed of more
powerful abilities than their fellows in the world, (polluerunt
ingenio),^ and had more confirmed themselves in their own
religion. Great numbers of the rich and the noble also
dwelt there, in habitations which were not above the earth's
surface, but which, from dread of robbers, were subterra-
nean, and were guarded at the entrances. In that quarter,
moreover, there was a great city, extending nearly from
east to west, and somewhat into the west, situated very near
the centre where the Reformed were. Myriads of men or
spirits tarried in that city. It was full of churches and mo-
nasteries. The ecclesiastics also carried into it all the treas-
ures which they were enabled by their various artifices to
scrape together, and they hid them in its cells and subterra-
nean crypts, which were so curiously formed, that no one
besides themselves could enter them, for they were disposed
around in the form of a labyrinth. On the treasures there
amassed, in the full confidence that they could never be de-
stroyed, they had set their hearts. When I saw those crypts
I was amazed at the art displayed in constructing them, and
increasing them without end. The most of those who call
BJLBYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 67
themselves ineinbei;8 of the society of Jesus were there,
and cultivated amicable relations with the rich who dwelt in
their neighborhood. Towards the east in that quarter was
the session where -they consulted on the enlargement of their
dominion, and on the means of keeping the people in blind
obedience, (see above, n. 56.) Thus much of their habita-
tions in the southern quarter. In the North, dwelt those
who had been possessed of less powerful abilities, and had
less confirmed themselves in their own religion, because
they were in an obscure faculty of discerning, and thence
in blind faith. The muhitude was not so great there as in
the south. The chief part of them dwelt in a great city,
extending lengthwise from the angle of the east to the west,
and also some little into the south. It was also full of
churches and monasteries. On its outmost side which was
near the east dwelt many of various religions, and also some
of the Reformed. A few places, moreover, beyond the city
in that quarter, were occupied by the Papists. In the East
dwelt those, who had been in the greatest delight of ruling
in the world, and at the same time in somewhat of natural
lumen; they appeared there on mountains, but only in the
-quarter which faces the north; there were none in the other
part which faces the south. In the angle towards the north,
there was a mountain, on whose summit they had placed a
certain person of unsound mind, whom, by communications
of the thoughts, which are known in the spiritual, but un-
known in the natural world, they were enabled to inspire to
command any thing they chose; and they gave out that he
was the very god of heaven, appearing under a human form,
and thus paid him divine worship. They did this, because
the people were desirous of seceding from their idofatrous
worship, wherefore, they devised it as a means of keeping
them in obedience. That mountain is understood in Isaiah
xiv. 13, by ** the mountain of convention in the sides of the
north," and those on the mountains are there understood by
Lucifer, verse 12; for such of the Babylonish crew as dwelt
in the east, were in greater lumen than others, which lumen
also, they had prepared for themselves by artifice. They
once appeared to be building a tower, whose head should
reach to the very heaven where the angels are, but the ap-
pearance was a mere representative of their machinations;
for machinations are presented in the spiritual world, before
the eyes of those who stand at a distance, by many repre"
Bentaiives, which yet do not exist actually to those who are
busied in the machinations: in that world, this is a common
thing. By this appearance it was given me to know what
68 OP THfi LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
the tower whose head should be in heaven, whence the
place was called Babel, Gen. xi. 1 to 10, signifies. Thus
much for their habitations in the east. In the West, in
front, dwelt those of that religion who had lived in the dark
ages, for the most part under-ground, one progeny beneath
another. The whole anterior tract, which looked to the
north, was, as it were, excavated, and filled with monas*
tcries; the entrances to them lay through caverns, closed
at top, through which they went out and in. They rarely
spoke with those who lived in the following ages, being of a
different disposition, and not so craflily wicked, for as, in
their times, there was no contention with the Reformed,
there was therefore less of the crafl and malice of hatred
and revenge. In the western quarter beyond that tract,
were many mountains, on which dwelt the wickedest of that
nation, who denied the Divine in their hearts, and yet orally
professed their belief in Him, and gesticulated their adora-
tion of Him more devoutly than others. They who were
there, devised nefarious artifices to keep the vulgar under
the yoke of their sway, and also to force others to submit to
that yoke: these artifices I may not describe, they are so
unspeakably wicked. In general they are such as are men-
tioned in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 580. The
mountains on which they dwelt, are understood in the
Apocalypse by the seven mountains, and the dwellers them-
selves are described by the woman sitting upon the scarlet
beast: "^^ I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns:
she had on the forehead a name written, mystery, Babylon
the great, mother of the whoredoms and abominations of
the land: the seven heads are seven mountains, on which
the woman sitteth." Apoc. xvii. 3, 5, 9. By a woman in
the internal sense, is understood the church; here in the
opposite sense, a profane religion; by the purple beast, the
profanation of celestial love; by the seven mountains, the
profane love of ruling. Thus much oC their habitations in
the west. The reason why they dwell distinct according to
quarters is, because all in the spiritual world are carried in-
to that quarter, and into that part of it, which corresponds
to their affections and loves, and no one to any other place;
concerning which see the work on Heaven and Hell,
where it treats Of the four quarters of heaven, n. 141 to
153. In general, all the consultations of the Babylonish
race tend to this, that they may dominate, not only over
heaven, but over the whole earth, and thus that they may
possess heaven and earth, obtaining each by means of the
BABTtON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROTED. 59
other. To effect this, they continually devise and hatch
new laws, and new doctrinals. They make the same en-
deavor also in the other life as they made in the world,
for every one after death is such as he was in the world,
most especially as regards his religion. It was granted me
to hear certain of the primates consulting about a doctrine,
which was to be a law to the people:, it consisted of many
articles, but they all tended to one thing; fraudulent domin*
ion over the heavens, and the earth, and the ascription of
all power to themselves, and of none to the Lord. These
doctrinals were afterwards read before the bystanders, and
thereupon, a voice was heard from heaven, declaring, that
they were dictated from the deepest hell, though the
hearers knew it not; which was further confirmed by this;
a crowd of devils from that hell, of the blackest and direst
appearance, ascended, and tore those doctrinals from them^
not with their hands, but with their teeth, and carried them
down to their own hell; to the amazement of those who
saw it.
69. Why they were there tolerated, until the day of the last
judgment. The reason was, because it is of Divine order
that all who can possibly be preserved, shall be preserved,
even until they can no longer remain among the good. All
those, therefore^ who can imitate spiritual life in externals,
and present it, to appearance, in a moral life, as if it were
really within, whatever they may be as to love and faith in
internals, are preserved; as are those also, who have out-
ward, though they have not inward, sanctity. Such were
many of that nation, for they could discourse piously with
the vulgar, and adore the Lord devotionally with them,
could implant religion in their animi, and lead them to think
of heaven and hell, and could uphold them in doing good
(bona), by preaching works. Thus they were enabled to
lead numbers to a life of good, and therefore into the way
to heaven; on which account also, many of that religion
were saved, although few of their leaders; the leaders being
such as the Lord means by *' false prophets, who come in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves," Matt,
vii. 15, By prophets, in the internal sense of the Word,
are understood those who teach truth, and lead to good by
means of it; and by false prophets, those who teach the
false, and seduce by means of it. They are also like the
scribes and pharisees, who are described by the Lord^ in
these words, ** They sit in Moses^ seat; all things that they
bid you observe, observe and do, but do not according to
their works, for they say and do not; all their works they
60 OF THB LAST JUDGMENT, AND THB
do to be seen of men; they shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men, but go not in themselves: they eat widows'
houses, for a pretence pouring forth long prayers. Woe
unto you, hypocrites, ye make clean the outside of the cup
and platter, but within they are full of rapine and iniquity;
cleanse first the inside of the cup and platter, that the out-
side may be clean also: ye are like whited sepulchres,
which appear outwardly beautiful, but within are full of
the bones of the dead: thus ye outwardly appear just be-
fore men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity,"
Matt, xxiii. 1 to 34. Another reason moreover why they
were there tolerated was, because every man after death
retains the religion he has made his own (imbuit) in the
world; into which therefore, when first he comes into the
other life, he is yielded up. Now with this nation, the reli-
gious principle was implanted by those who gave an oral
preference to sanctity, and feigned holy gestures, and more-
over, impressed the people with a belief in their power of
saving; on which ground also they were not removed, but
were preserved among their own. But the principal reason
was, that all are preserved from one judgment to another,
who live the semblance of a spiritual life in externals, and
imitate, as it were internal piety and sanctity; all, indeed,'
from whom the simple may receive instruction and guidance:
for the simple in faith and heart look no farther than to what
is external and apparent before the eyes. Hence all such
were tolerated from the commencement of the Christian
church, until the day of the last judgment. (That a last
judgment has existed twice before, and now exists for the
third time, was shewn above). Of the whole of these the
former heaven consisted, and they are understood in the
Apocalypse xx. 5, 6, by ** those who are not of the first
resurrection ;'' but since they were such as they are above
described, that heaven was destroyed, and they of the second
resurrection were cast out. But it ought to be known that
they only were preserved who suffered themselves to be
held bound by laws both civil and spiritual, they being ca-
pable of living together in society; howbeit, they who could
not be restrained by those laws were not preserved, but
were cast into hell long before the day of the last judgment:
for societies are continually purified from, and defended
against such. Hence, they who led a wicked life, who
enticed the vulgar into the commission of evils, and entered
on abominable arts, such as exist among spirits in the hells,
(see the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 580), were cast
out of societies, and this in their turns. In like manner
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED.' 61
also the inwardly good are removed from societiee, lest they
should be contaminated by the inwardly evil; for the good
perceive the interiors, and therefore pay no regard to the
exteriors, except just so far as they agree with the interiors;
they are sent in their turns, to places of instruction (con-
cerning which see the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 512
to 520), and are carried thence into heaven ; for the new
heaven is formed of them, and they are understood by
''those who are of the first resurrection/' Thus much is
here declared, in order that it may be known why so many
of the Papal religion were tolerated and preserved until the
day of the last judgment; but more will be said on the same
subject in the following article, where the first heaven which
passed away is to be treated of.
60. The mode in tohich they were destroyed, and their habir
tationa made a desert. This I will here describe in few
words; more fully in the explication on the Apocalypse.
That the Babylon there treated of has been destroyed, no
one but he who saw it can know, and to me it was given to
see how the last judgment was brought about and thoroughly
accomplished upon all, especially upon those of the Baby-
lon. I, therefore, will describe it. This was granted me,
principally in order to reveal to the world that all the things
predicted in the Apocalypse are divinely inspired, and that
the Apocalypse is a prophetic book of the Word; for if this,
and at the same time the internal sense which there is in
each expression of that book, as in each expression of the
Prophets of the Old Testament, were not revealed to the
world, that book might possibly be rejected, on account of
being not understood; which would further make men to^
tnlhr incredulous of its contents, nay, of any such thing as
»t judgment to come : in which disbelief those of the
ylon would confirm themselves more strongly than
)rs. Lest this should be, it pleased the Lord to make
an eye-witness. But the whole of what I saw of the last
*ment upon those of the Babylon, in other words, of the
ruction of the Babylon, being in itself sufficient to fill a
ime, cannot be here adduced: in this place I shall mere-
elate certain general aspects of it, reserving the partic-
Ts for the explication on the Apocalypse. Inasmuch as
e Babylonish nation was settled in, and extended over,
.lany tracts in the spiritual world, and had formed to itself
societies in all the quarters, I will describe in regular suc-
cession the mode in which it was destroyed in each several
quarter.
61. Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation
62 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
always precedes. The act of exploring what the men are,
and moreover the separation of the good from the evil, is
visitation ; and the good are then removed, and the evil are
lefl behind. This having been done, there were great
earthquakes, from which they perceived that the last judg-
ment was at hand, and trembling seized them all. Then
those in the Southern Quarter, and especially in the great
city there, (see n. 58), were seen running to and fro, some
with the intention of betaking themselves to flight, some of
hiding themselves in the crypts, others of hiding in the cel-
lars and caves beside their treasures, out of which others
again carried any thing they could lay their hands on. But
after the earthquakes there burst up an ebullition from below,
(ab inferiori) which overturned every thing in the city and in
the region round it. After this ebullition came a vehement
wind from the east, which laid bare, shook, and overthrew
every thing to its foundations, upon which all who were there
were led forth, from every part, and from all their hiding-
places, and cast into a sea of black waters: those who were
cast into it, amounted to many myriads. Afterwards, from
that whole region, a smoke ascended, as after a conflagra-
tion, and finally a thick dust, which was borne by the east
wind to the sea, and strewn over it; for their treasures were
turned into dust, with all those things they had called holy
because they possessed them. This, dust was strewn over
the sea, because such dust signifies damnation. In the last
place, there was seen, as it were a blackness flying over that
whole region, which, when it was viewed narrowly, appeared
like a dragon; a sign that the whole of that vast city and
region was become a desert. This was seen, because dra**
gons signify the falses of such a religion, and the abode of
dragons signifies the desert state which remains after their
overthrow; as in Jeremiah ix. II. — ^x. 22. — xlix. 33. — ^Mali-
chi i. 3. Certain persons were also seen to have, as it were
a mill-stone around their lefl arms, which was a representa-
tive of their having confirmed their abominable dogmas
from the Word; a mill -stone signifying such things: hence
it was plain what these words in the Apocalypse signify,
'^ The angel took up a stone, like a great mill-stone, and
hurled it into the sea, saying, thus with violence shall
that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall no more
be found," Apoc. xviii. 21. But they who were in the ses-
sion, which also was in that region, but nearer to the east,
and in which they were consulting on the modes of en-
larging their dominion, and of keeping the people in igno-
rance, and thence in blind obedience, (see above n. d8) were
BABYLON WHICH HAS B££N DESTROYED. 69
not cast into that black sea, but into a gulf which yawned
into length and depth beneath and around them. Such was
the accomplishaient of the last judgment upon the Babylo<-
nians in the southern quarter. But the last judgment upon
those in front in the Western Quarter, and upon those in
the Northern Quarter, where the other great city stood,
was thus effected. After great earthquakes, which rent
everything in those quarters to the very foundations, (these
are the earthquakes which are understood in the Word, in
Matthew xxiv. 7. — Luke xxi. 11. — likewise Apoc. vi. 12.—
viii. 5 — xi. 13. — xvi. 18, and in the prophecies of the Old
Testament, and not any earthquakes in this world) an east
wind went forth by the way of the south, through the west,
into the north, despoiling the whole region, first that part of
it in front in the western quarter, where the people of the
dark ages dwelt underground, and afterwards the great city,
which extended from that quarter, quite through the north,
to the east, and laid it bare so utterly, that all things were
exposed to view. But because there were not such riches
there, no ebullition, and sulphurous treasure-consuming
fire, were seen, but mere overturn and destruction, and at
length exhalation of the whole into smoke; for the east wind
went forth continually, blowing to and fro; it overthrew, it
destroyed all things, and blew them clean away. The
monks and common people were led forth to the amount of
many myriads; some were cast into the black sea, on that
side of it which faces the west ; some into the great south-
ern gulf, mentioned above; some into a western gulf, and
some into the hells of the Gentiles, for a part of those who
lived in the dark ages were idolaters, like the Gentiles. A
smoke also was seen to ascend from that region, and to pro-
ceed as far as the sea; over which it hovered, depositing a
black crust there; for that part of the sea into which they
were cast, was encrusted over with the dust and smoke, in-
to which their dwellings and their riches had been reduced;
wherefore that sea has no longer a visible existence, but in
its place is seen, as it were a black soil, and their hell is
under it. The last judgment upon those who dwelt upon
the mountains in the Eastern Quarter (see n. 58), was
thus accomplished. Their mountains were seen to subside
into the deep, and all those who were upon them to be swal-
lowed up; and he whom they had placed upon one of the
mountains, and whom they proclaimed to be god, was seen
to become first black, then fiery, and with his worshipers to
be cast headlong into hell. For the monks of the various
orders who dwelt upon those mountains, declared that he
6
64 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AN0 THE
was god and that they were Christ, and wherever they went,
they took with them the abominable persuasion that theno-
selves were Christ. Finally, judgment was accomplished
upon those who dwelt more remotely in the Western Quar-
ter, upon the mountains there, and who are understood by
the woman sitting upon the scarlet beast, who had seven
heads whioh are seven mountains, of whom also something
is related at n. 58. Their mountains too were seen, of
which some yawned open in the middle, and the apertures
widened into huge spiral gulfs, into which those (yn the
mountains were cast. Other mountains were torn up by
their foundations, and turned upside down, so that summit
and basis were inverted; ' those who were thence in the
plains were inundated as with a deluge, and covered over,
and those who were among them from other quarters were
cast into gulfs. But the things now related are only a small
part of all I saw; more will be given in the explication
on the Apocalypse. They were brought about and thor-
oughly accomplished in the beginning of the year seventeen
hundred and fifty-seven. As regards the gulfs into which
the whole of the Babylonians were cast, excepting those
who were cast into the black sea, they arc many in number.
Four of them were discovered to me; one great gulf in the
southern quarter, to the east there; another in the westera
quarter, to the south; a third in the western quarter, to the
north there; a fourth still further in the angle between the
west and north: the gulfs and the sea are their heUs. These
were seen, but in addition to these there are many more,
which were not seen; for the hells of the Babylonish na«
tion are distinct according to the various profanations of
spiritual things, which belong to the good and the truth of
the church.
62. Thus now was the spiritual world freed from such
spirits, and the angels rejoiced on account of its liberation
from them, because they of the Babylon infested and se-
duced whomsoever they could, and in that world more
than in this, their cunning being more mischievous there,
because they are spirit?; for it is the spirit of each in which
all his wickedness is hidden, since the spirit of the man is
what thinks, wills, intends, and devises. Many of them
were explored, and it was found that they had no belief in
any thing at all, and that the abominable lust of seducing,
the rich for the sake of their riches, and the poor for the
sake of dominion, was rooted in their animi, and that they
kept all men in the densest ignorance in order to obtain that
end; thus blocking up the way to light, and therefore the
BABTLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 66
way to heaven: for th« way to light and to heaven is ob-
structed, when the knowledges of spiritual things are over-
whelmed by idolatries, and when the Word is adulterated,
invalidated, and taken away.
63. That such among them as were in the affection of trtUh
from good %vere preserved. Those of the Papal religion who
lived piously, and were in good, although not in truths, and
still from affection desired to know truths, were taken and
carried into a certain region, in front in the western quar-
ter, near the north, habitations being given them, and so-
cieties of them instituted there, and then priests from the
Reformed were sent thither, who instructed itiem from the
Word, and as they are instructed, they are accepted into
heaven.
64. Of th'C state of those hereafter who come thence from the
countries from the earth. Since the last judgment is now
accomplished, and all things are reduced by the Lord into
order through means of it, and sinct) all who are inwardly
good are taken into heaven, and all who are inwardly evil
are cast into hell, it is no longer permitted them, as hereto-
fore it was, to form societies below and above hell, or to
have any thing in common with other spirits, but as soon as
ever they come thither, that is, at the death of each of
them, they are altogether separated, and after passing a cer-
tain time in the world of spirits, they are carried into their
own places. They therefore who profane holy things, that
is who claim for themselves the power of opening and shut-
ting heaven, and of remitting sins, (which are powers be-
longing to the Lord alone), and who place Papal bulls on
an equality with the Word, and have dominion for an end,
are henceforth carried away into that black sea, or into
those gulfs, which are the hells of profaners. But it was
declared to me from heaven, that those of that religion who
are of such a nature, do not look at all to the life after
death, because they deny it in their hearts, but that they
look solely to the life in the world; and that hence they
care not a straw (flocipendant) for this lot of theirs after
death, which yet is to endure to eternity, but laugh at it, as
a thing of nought.
OP THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLITION.
65. It is said in the Apocalypse, " I saw a great throne,
and One sitting upon it, from whose face the heaven and the
66 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT^ AND THE
land fled away, and their place wag not found," xx. 11.
And afterwards, ** I saw a new heaven and a new land; tho
first heaven and the first land had passed away,'' xxi. 1.
That a new heaven and a new land, after the passing away
of the former heaven and the former land, do not mean the
visible heaven or the land we inhabit, but an angelic heaven
and a church, was shewn above in the first article, and also
in those which follow it. For the Word in itself is spiritual,
and therefore treats of spiritual things; spiritual things
being those which are proper to heaven and the church;
th«se are expounded by natural things in the sense of the
letter, because natural things serve as a basis to spiritual
things, without which basis the Word would not be a Divine
Work, because it would not be complete; for the natural,
which is the ultimate in Divine Order, completes, and makes
the interiors, which are spiritual and celestial, to subsist
upon it, as a house upon its foundation. Now whereas men
have thought of the contents of the Word from a natural
and not from a spiritual ground, therefore, by the heaven
and the land which are mentioned here and elsewhere, they
have understood none other than the sky and land which
exist in the world of nature; hence it is that they all expect
the passing away and destruction of these, followed too by a
creation of new ones. But lest they should expect this er*
cfrlastingly, from age to age in vain, the spiritual sense of
the Word is opened, that thus it may be known what is un**
derstood by much in the Word, which, when thought of
naturally, does not enter the understanding, and, at the
same time, what is understood by the heaven and the land
which will pass away.
66. But before shewing what is understood by the first
heaven and the first land, it ought to be known, that by the
first heaven is not understood the heaven formed of those
who have become angels from the first creation of the world
to the present time, for that heaven is abiding, and endures
to eternity; for all who enter heaven are under the Lord's
protection, and he who has once been received by the Lord,
can never be plucked away from Him. But by the first heav-
en is understood a heaven which was composed (conflatum) of
others than those who have become angels, and for the most
part of those who could not become angels. Who they
were, and what, shall be told in the following pages. This
heaven it is, of which it is said, that it *' passed away." It
was called heaven, because they who were in it dwelt on
high, forming societies upon rocks and mountains, and living
in similar to natural delights, but never in any that were
fiABTLON WHICH HAS BEEN PBSTROTED. 67
Bpiiitua); for very many who depart from the earth into the
spiritual world, believe themselves in heaven, when they are
on high, and in heavenly joy, when they are in world-like
delights. Hence it was called heaven, but *' the first heaven
which passed away."
67. It is moreover to be noted, that this heaven which is
called the first, did not consist of any who had lived before
the Lord's coming into the world, but that all who composed
it lived after His coming, for (as was shewn above, n. 33 to
38) a last judgment is effected at the end of every church, a
ibrmer heaven being then abolished, and a new heaven cre-
ated or formed; for all who led an outwardly moral life, and
lived in piety and sanctity that was external, although not
internal, were tolerated from the beginning to the end of
the church, and this so long as the internals which belong
to the thoughts and intentions could be held in bonds by the
laws of society, civil and moral; but at the end of the
church their internals are unveiled, and the judgment is then
effected upon them. Hence it is,- that a last judgment has
been effected upon the inhabitants of this planet twice be-
fore, and now is, for the third time (see n. 46); thus also a
heaven and a land have twice passed away, and a new heav-
en and a new land have been created; for the heaven and
the land are the church in either world, as shewn above, n,
1 to 5. Hence it is plain, that the new heaven and the new
land, mentioned in the prophets of the Old Testament, are
not that new heaven and new land mentioned in the Apoca-
lypse, but that the former existed from the Lord when He
was in the world, and that the latter exist from Him now.
Concerning the heaven and the land in the prophets of the
Old Testament, it is thus written, *' Behold I am about to
create a new heaven and a new land, neither shall the for-
mer be remembered," Isaiah Ixv. 17. And in another place,
" I am about to make a new heaven and a new land,'' Isaiah
Ixvi. 22; besides what is said in Daniel.
68. Since the first heaven which passed away is the sub-
ject now treated of, and since no one knows any thing coa<-
cerning it, I will describe it in order.
I. Of whom the first heaven consisted.
II. What kind of heaven it was.
III. How it passed away.
69. Of tokdm the first heaven consisted. The first heaven
was composed of all upon whom the last judgment was e^
fected, for it was not effected upon those in hell, nor upon
those in heaven, nor upon those in the world of spirits,
(coQcerniiig which world see the work on Heaven aqd
6*
68 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
Hell, n. 421 to 520), nor upon any who were yet living in
th%8 worlds but solely upon those who had made to themselves
the likeness of a heaven, of whom the greater part were on
mountains and rocks; these also were they whom the Lord
meant by the goats, which he placed on the left, Matthew
XXV. 32, 33, and following verses. Hence it may appear,
that the first heaven existed, not merely from Christians,
but also from Mahometans and Gentiles, who had all formed
to themselves such heavens in their own places. What
manner of men they were shall be told in few words. They
were those who lived in the world in external, and never in
internal, sanctity; who were just and sincere for the sake
of civil and moral laws, but not for the sake of Divine Laws,
therefore, who were external or natural, and not internal or
spiritual men; who also were in the doctrinals of the church,
and were able to teach them, but whose lives were not ac-
cordant with them; and who filled various offices, and did
uses, but not for the sake of uses. These, and all through-
out the whole world who were like them, and lived after the
Lord's coming, constituted the Brst heaven. This heaven
therefore was such as the world and church upon earth is,
among those who do good, not because it is good, but be-
cause they fear the laws, and the loss of fame, honor, and
lucre; they who do good from no other origin, do not fear
Grod, but men, and are destitute of conscience. In the first
heaven of the Reformed, there was a large proportion of
spirits, who believed that man is saved by faith alone, and
did not live the life of faith, which is charity; and who
loved much to be seen of men. In all these spirits, so long
as they were associated together, the interiors were closed,
that they might not appear, but when the last judgment
was at hand they were opened ; and it was then found that
inwardly they were obsessed by falses and evils of every
kind, and that they were against the Divine, and were actu-
ally in hell: for every one after death is immediately bound
to his like, the good to their like in heaven, but the evil to
their like in hell, yet they do not go to them before the inte-
riors are unveiled; in the meantime they may live together
in society with those who resemble them in externals. But
it is to be noted, that all who were inwardly good or spirit-
ual, were separated from those spirits, and elevated into
heaven, and that all who were outwardly, as well as inwardly,
evil, were also separated from them, and cast into hell; and
this from the time immediately succeeding the Lord's ad-
vent, down to the last time, when the judgment was; and
that those only were left, to form societies among themselves,
'
BABYLON. WHICH HAS BEEN DE8TR0TED. 69
who constituted the first heaven, and who were of the kind
above described.
70. There were many reasons why such societies, or such
heavens were tolerated; the principal reason was, that by
external sanctity, by external sincerity and justice, they
were conjoined with the simple-good, who were either in the
ultimate heaven, or were still in the world of spirits and not
yet introduced into heaven. For in the spiritual world,
there is a communication, and thence a conjunction, of all
with their like; and the simple-good, in the ultimate heaven,
and in the world of spirits, look principally to externals, yet
are not inwardly evil; wherefore if these spirits had been
forcibly removed from them before the appointed time, heav-
en would have suffered in its ultiniates; and yet it is the ul-
timate, upon which the superior heaven subsists, as upon its
own basis. That these spirits were tolerated until the last
time on this account, the Lord teaches in the following
words: ''The servants of the householder came and said
unto him. Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field, whence
then are the tares .^ and they said. Wilt thou then that we
go and gather them up? but he said, Nay, lest, while ye
gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them:
let both therefore grow together until the harvest, and at
the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye
together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn:
but gather the wheat into barns. He that hath sowed the
good seed, is the Son of Man: the field is the world: the
good seed are the sons of the kingdom, the tares arc the
sons of evil; the harvest is the consummation of the age:
as therefore the tares are gathered together, and burnt with
fire, so shall it be in the consummation of this age,'' Matt,
xiii. 27 to 30, 37 to 40. The consummation of this age, is the
last time of the church ; the tares are those who are inwardly
evil; the wheat are those who are inwardly good; the gather-
ing the tares together, and binding them in bundles to burn,
is the last judgment."* The like is understood in the same
1 That bundles in the Word signify the arrangement of the truths and
falses a man has, into series, thus also the arrangement of men in whom
truths and falses are, n. 4(586, 4()d7, 6339, 5530, 7408, 10303. Tha' the
Son of Man is the Lord as to Divine Truth, n. 1729, J 733, 2159, 2628,
2803,2813,3255,3704,7499,8897, 9087. That the sons are the affec-
tions of truth from good, n 489, 491, 533, 2623, 3373, 4257, 8649, 9807 ;
therefore, that the sons of the kingdom are those who are in the affec-
tions of truth from good ; and the sons of evil, those who are in the af-
fections of the false from evil; whence the latter are called tares, and
the former good seed ; for tares signify the false from evil, and good
seed, truth from good } that the seed of the field is truth from good in
70 OF TtiE LAST JUDGMENT, AND TH£
chapter by the Lord's parable of the fishes of all kinds^
which were gathered together, and the good placed in ves-
sels, but the bad cast away; concerning which it is also
said, '* so shall it be in the consummation of the age; the
angels shall go forth, and separate the evil from the midst of
the just," verses 47, 48, 49. They are compared to fishes,
because fishes in the spiritual sense of the Word, signify
natural and external men, both good and evil ; what the just
signify may be seen below/
71. What kind of heaven it was, may be concluded from
the things already said of it ; as also from this, that they
who are not spiritual by acknowledgment of the Lord,
by a life of good, and by an affection of truth, and still ap-
pear as spiritual by external sanctity, by talk [sermocinatio]
on Divine things, and by sincerities for the sake of them-
selves and the world, rush into the abominations which
accord with their lusts, when they are left to their own
internals; for nothing detains them, neither fear of God, .nor
faith, nor conscience. Hence it was, that as soon as ever
they who were in the first heaven were yielded up into
their own interiors, they were in open conjunction with the
hells.
72. The inanner in which the first heaven passed away was
described before, in describing the last judgment upon the
Mahometans and Gentiles, n. 50 to 51 ; and upon the Pa-
pists, n. 61, 62, 63, since they also in their own places wer^
constituents of the first heaven. It remains that something
be said of the last judgment upon the Reformed, who are
also called Protestants and Evangelici, or of the manner in
which the first heaven composed of them passed away; for
(as was said above) judgment was effected upon those only of
whom the first heaven consisted. After being visited, and
yielded up into their own interiors, they were separated from
each other, and divided into classes according to evils and their
man, from the Lord, n. 1940, 3038, 3210, 3373, 10248, 10249. That seed
in the opposite sense is the false from evil, n. 10248. That the seed of
the field is also the nutrition of the mind by Divine Truth from the Word,
and that sowing is instruction, n. 6158, 9272. That the consummation
of the age is the last time of the church, n. 4535, 10622.
' That fishes, in the spiritual sense of the Word signify scientificd,
which belong to the natural or external man^ and hence also natural or
external men, both evil and good, n. 40, 991. That animals of all kinds
correspond with such things as are in man, n. 45, 46, 246 714, 716, 719,
749, 2170, 2180, 3519, 9280, 10609. That, in the Word, they to whom
the Lord*s justice and merit are attributed, are called just ; they to
whom self-justice and self-merit are attributed, are called unjust, n.
3648,5069,9263.
BABTtON WHICH HAS BBEN DESTROYED. 7l
derivative falses, and according to falsesand their derivativ*
evils, and were cast into hells correspondent with their loves.
Their hells surrounded the middle region on all sides, for
the Reformed were in the middle, the Papists around them,
the Mahometans around the Papists, and the Gentiles in the
outmost circuit. (See n. 48.) Those who were not cast in-
to hells, were ejected into deserts; yet there were some
sent down to the plains in the southern and northern quar-
ters, there to form societies, and be instructed and prepared
for heaven ; these are they who were preserved. But how
all these things were accomplished, cannot be minutely de-
scribed in this place, for the judgment upon the Reformed
was of longer continuance than upon others, and was e^
fected by successive changes. Now since much that is
worthy of mention was then heard and seen, I will present
the particulars in their own order in the explication on the
Apocalypse.
OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD, AND OF THE CHURCH
HEREAFTER.
73. The state of the world hereafter will be quite similar
to what it has been heretofore, for the great change which
has been effected in the spiritual world, does not induce any
change in the natural world as regards the outward form;
so that the affairs of states, peace, treaties, and wars, with
all other things which belong to societies of men, in gene-
ral, and in particular, will exist in the future, just as they
existed in the past. The Lord's saying, that '*in the last
times there will be wars, and that nation will then rise
against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and that there
will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places,"
Matthew xxiv. 6, 7, does not signify that such things will
exist in the natural world, but that things correspondent
with them will exist in the spiritual world, for the Wotd in
its prophecies does not treat of the kingdoms, or of the na-
tions upon earth, or consequently of their wars, or of fam-
ines, pestilences, and earthquakes in nature, but of such
things as correspond to them in the spiritual world ; what
these things are, is explained in the Arcana Ccelei^tia, and
a collection of passages on the subject may be seen below.*
■From ths Arcana Colxstta. That wars in the Word nigmfjf
spiritual combats, n. 1659, 1664, 8295, 10455. That hence all the arms
of war, as the bow, the sword, the shield, signify something of spiritual
72 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
But as for the state of the church, this it is which will be
dissimilar hereader; it will be similar indeed in the outward
form, but dissimilar in the inward. To outward appearance
divided churches will exist as heretofore, their doctrines will
be taught as heretofore; and the same religions as now,
will exist among the Gentiles. But henceforth the man of
the church will be in a more free state of thinking on mat-'
ters of faith, that is on spiritual things which relate to heav-
en, because spiritual liberty has been restored to him. For
all things in the heavens and in the hells are now reduced
into order, and all thinking which entertains 'or opposes
Divine things inflows from thence, — from the heavens, all
which is in harmony with Divine things, and from the hells,
all which is opposed to them. But man does not observe
this change of state in himself, because he does not reflect
upon it, and because he knows nothing of spiritual liberty,
or of influx: nevertheless it is perceived in heaven, and also
by man himself when he dies. Since spiritual liberty has
been restored to man, the spiritual sense of the Word is
now unveiled, and interior Divine Truths are revealed by
means of it; for man in his former state would not have
understood them, and he who would have understood them,
would have profaned them. That liberty is given to man
by means of an equilibrium between heaven and hell, and,
that man cannot be reformed except in freedom, may be
Been in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 597, to the
end.
74. I have had various converse with the angels, con-
cerning the state of the church hereafter. They said, that
things to come they know not, for that the knowledge of
things to come belongs to the Lord alone, but that they do
know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of
the church was formerly, is removed, and that now, from
restored liberty, he can better perceive interior truths, if
he wills to perceive them, and thus be made more internal,
if he wills it; but that still they have slender hope of the
combat, n. 1788, 2686. That kingdoms signify churches as to truths
tnd as to fal8es,n. 1672,2547. That nations signify those in the church,
who are in goods and who are in evils, n. 1059, 1159, 1205, 1258, 1260,
1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 6306, 7830, 8054, 8317, 9320, 9327. That famine
signifies a defect of the knowledges of good and truth, n. 1460, 3364,
6IW7, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5893. That it also signifies the
desolation* of the church, n. 5279, 5415, 5576, 6110, 6144, 7102. That
pestilence signifies the vastation and consummation of good and truth,
n. 7102, 7505, 7507, 7511. That earthquakes signify changes of the
state of the church, n. 3355.
BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 73
men of. the Christian church, but much of some nation far
distant from the Christian world, and therefore removed
from infesters [infestatores], which nation is such, that it is
capable of receiving spiritual light, and of being made a
celestial spiritual man, and they said, that at this day interior
Divine Truths are revealed in that nation, and are also re-
ceived in spiritual faith, that is, in life and in heart, and that
it worships the Lord.
CONTINUATION
CONCERNING
THE LAST JUDGMENT,
AND CONCEBNma
THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
PUBLISHED in AMSTERDAM,
1763.
A CONTINUATION
COMCEBNING
THE LAST JUDGMENT
THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
1 . In the former small work on the Last Judgment, the
following subjects were treated of: That the day of the last
judgment does not mean the destruction of the world, n. 1
to 5. That the procreations of mankind will never cease,
n. 6 to 13. That heaven and hell are from mankind, n. 14
to 22. That all who have ever been born men from the be-
ginning of -creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven
or in hell, n. 23 to 27. That the last judgment must be,
where all are together; therefore in the spiritual world, and
not on the earth, n. 28 to 32. That the last judgment exists,
when the end of the church is; and that the end of the
church is, when faith is not, because charity is not, n. 33 to
39. That all the things, which are predicted in the Apoca-
lypse, are at this day fulfilled, n. 40 to 44. That the last
judgment has been accomplished, n. 45 to 52. Of the Ba-
bylon, and of its destruction, n. 53 to 64. Of the former
heaven, and of its abolition, n. 65 to 72. Of the state of
the world and of the church hereafter, ti. 73, 74.
2. The subject of the last judgment is continued, prin-
cipally that it may be knowi^ what the state of the world
and the church was before the last judgment, and what the
state of the world and the church has become since ; also,
how the last judgment was accomplished upon the Re-
formed.
3. It is a common opinion in the Christian world, that the
universal heaven we see, and the universal earth we inhabit,
will perish at the day of the last judgment, and that a new
heaven and a new earth will become extant in their places;
that the souls of men will then regain their bodies, and that
man will thus again be man as he was before. This opinion
has become matter of faith, because the Word has not been
78 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
understood otherwise than according to the sense of its let-
ter: (^and it could not be understood otherwise, until its
spiritual sense was discovered,) also, because there is a
wide-spread belief, that the soul is the mere breath exhaled
by man, and that spirits, as well as angels, are as unsub-
stantial as the wind. While there was such a deficiency of
understanding concerning souls, and concerning spirits and
angels, the last judgment could not be thought of in any
other manner. But when it comes to be understood, that a
man is a man afler death, just as he was a man in the world,
with the sole difference, that then he is clothed with a spirit-
ual, and not as before with a natural body; and further,
that the spiritual body appears before those who are spirit-
ual, even as the natural body appears before those who are
natural, it may then also be understood, that the last judg-
ment will not be in the natural, but in the spiritual world;
for all the men who were ever born and have died, are to-
gether there.
4. When this is understood, then may the paradoxes be
dissipated, which man would otherwise entertain on the
state of souls afler death, and their re-union with putred
corpses, and on the destruction of the created universe; in
other words, on the last judgment. The paradoxes he
would entertain on the state of souls afler death, are these:
that man was then like an exhalation, or like wind, or like
ether; either that he was floating in the air, or permanent
in no place, but in a somewhere, (in Ubi) which they call
Pu; and that he saw nothing, because he had no eyes;
heard nothing, because he had no ears; spoke nothing, be-
cause he had no mouth ; and was therefore blind, deaf, and
dumb; and that he was continually, and, it must be, sorrow-
fully, longing to regain those functions of the soul, from
which all the joyousness of life proceeds, at the day of the
last judgment: also, that the souls of all who have lived
since the first creation, were in the same wretched state,
and that the men of fifty or sixty ages ago, were likewise
still floating in the air, or remaining in Pu, and awaiting the
judgment; with other lamentable things.
6. I pass over paradoxes, similar to, and equally nume-
rous with these, which the man, who knows not that he is a
man afler death, as before it, must entertain concerning the
destruction of the universe. But he who does know, that a
man, after death, is not an exhalation, or a wind, but a
spirit, and, if he has lived well, an angel in heaven, and that
spirits and angels are men in a perfect form, may think from
his intellect, of the future state, and the last judgment; re-
CONTINUATION OP THE LAST JUDGMENT. 79
jectiDg the non-intellectual faith which harbors mere tradi-
tions: and may also with certainty conclude from his intel-
lect, that the last judgment, which is predicted in the Word,
will not exist in the natural world, but in the spiritual world,
where all are together: and furthermore, that whenever it
does exist, it must be revealed, for the sake of the fidelity of
the Word, [propter fidem Verbi.]
6. Put away from you the idea of the soul being an ex-
halation, and then think of your own state, or of the state
of your friends, or of the state of your infants ader death.
Shall you not think you will be a living man, [quod victurus
sis homo] and they likewise ? And since there is no proper
life without the senses, you cannot think otherwise than that
they also see, hear, and speak; which also accords with the
inscriptions of those who erect monuments over deceased
relations, and place them in heaven among the angels, in
white garments, and in paradises. But if afterwards you
relapse into the idea, that the soul is an exhalation, and has
no sensitive life until after the last judgment, can you help
being distracted when you think, '* What, and where shall
I be in the meantime ? Shall I float in the air, or remain in
Pu? Yet the preacher teaches me that after death I shall
come among the blessed, if I have believed well, and lived
well." You may believe then, as the truth is, that you are
a man after death as well as before it, differing only, as
spiritual differs from natural. Thus also, think all those
who are believers in eternal life, without knowing any thing
of this hypothetic tradition on the soul.
7. From what has been said already, it may appear, that
the last judgment cannot exist in the natural world, but may
exist in the spiritual world. That it also has existed there,
may be seen from the things related of it from sight, in the
former small work On the Last Judgment, n. 45 to 72,
and, will appear still further, from the particulars, about to
be related from sight, of the last judgment upon the Re-
formed. He who attends, may also see it, from the new
things which are now revealed concerning heaven, the
Word, and the church. What man can draw such things
from himself?
OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD AND OF THE CHURCH
BEFORE THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND AFTER IT.
8. That the last judgment has been accomplished in the
spiritual world, may appear from what has just been said:
7*
80 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
nevertheless, in order to know any thing of the state of the
world and the church before and afler it, a thorough know-
ledge of the following subjects is necessary.
I. What is understood by the former heaven and the for-
mer land which passed away. Apoc. xxi. 1 .
II. Who, and what manner of men, those in the former
heaven, and in the former land, were.
III. That before the last judgment was effected upon
them, much of the communication between heaven and the
world, therefore also between the Lord and the church, was
intercepted.
IV. That after the last judgment the communication was
restored.
V. That hence it is, that after the last judgment, and not
sooner, revelations were made for the new church.
VI. That the state of the world and of the church before
the last judgment was as evening and night, but afler it, as
morning and day.
9. I. What is understood by the former heaven and the for"
mer land which passed away, mentioned in the Apocalypse xxi.
1. The former heaven, and the former land there men-
tioned, neither mean a heaven visible to the eyes of men in
the world, and a land inhabited by men; nor the former
heaven, which is the abode of all those, since the first crea-
tion, who have lived well. But congregations of spirits are
understood, who, between heaven and hell, had made seem-
ing heavens [tanquam caelos] for themselves: and inasmuch
as all spirits and angels inhabit lands, as well as men, there-
fore, by the former heaven and the former land, these seem-
ing heavens themselves are understood. The passing away
of that heaven and that land was a thing seen, and it has
been described from sight in the work On the Last Judg-
ment, n. 45 to 72.
10. II. Who, and what manner of men, those in the former
heaven, and in the former land, were, was described in the
work On the Last Judgment; but inasmuch as on a know-
ledge of this subject, depends the understanding of what
follows, who and what they were, shall again be told. All
those who gathered themselves together underneath heaven,
and in various places formed seeming heavens for them-
selves, and also called them heavens, were conjoined with
the angels of the ultimate heaven, but only as to externals,
not as to internals. For the most part they were the goats
and those akin to them, who are named in Matthew xxv. 41
to 46; who, indeed, in the world had not done evils, for, mor-
ally, they had lived well; but they had not done goods from
CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 81
a good origin, for they had separated faith from charity, and
hence, had not regarded evils as sins. Now, because in
externals they had lived as Christians, they were conjoined
with the angels of the ultimate heave'n, who were like them
in externals, bat unlike them in internals ; they being the
sheep, and in faith, yet in the faith of charity. On account
of this conjunction they were necessarily tolerated; for the
act of separating them, before the last judgment, would
have brought ruin upon those who were in the ultimate
heaven, who would have been drawn into destruction with
them. This is what the Lord foretold in Matthew: '' Jesus
spake a parable; the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a
man who sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept,
his enemy came, and sowed tares, and went away: when the
blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared
the tares also: so the servants of the householder coming,
Baid unto him. Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy
field? Whence then are the tares? Wilt thou then that we
go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest, while ye
gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them:
let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time
of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ; but
gather the wheat into my barn. He who hath sown the
good seed, is the Son of Man; the field is the world; the
seed are the sons of the kingdom ; the tares are the sons
of evil; the harvest is the consummation of the age: as
therefore the tares are gathered together, and burned, so
shall it be in the consummation of the age,'' xiii. 24 to 30,
37 to 40; the consummation of the age, is the last time of
the church; the tares are those who are inwardly evil; the
wheat are those who are inwardly good; the gathering the
tares together to burn, is the last judgment upon the evil;
the care lest a separation before the last judgment should
bring ruin upon the good, is signified by '^lest in collecting
the tares you should at the same time root up the wheat
with them: suffer them both to grow till the harvest.''
11. III. That before the last judgment was effected upon
them, much of the communication between heaven and the world,
therefore between the Lord and the church, was intercepted.
All enlightenment comes to man from the Lord through
heaven and enters by an internal way. So long as there
were congregations of such spirits between heaven and the
world, or between the Lord and the church, man was una-
ble to be enlightened. It was as when a sunbeam is cut off
by a black interposing cloud, or as when the sun is eclipsed.
B2 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
and its light arrested, by the interjacent moon. Wherefore,
if any thing had been then revealed by the Lord, either it
would not have been understood, or if understood, still it
would not hav^ been received, or if received, still it would
afterwards have been suffocated. Now since all these in-
terposing congregations were dissipated by the last judg-
ment, it is plain, IV. That the communication between heaven
and the toorld, or between the Lord and the church, has been
restored,
12. V. Hence it is, that after the last judgment, and not
sooner, revelations were made for the New Church. For since
communication has been restored by the last judgment,
man is able to be enlightened and reformed; that is, to un-
derstand the Divine Truth of the Word, to receive it when
understood, and to retain it when received, for the inter-
posing obstacles are removed; and therefore John, after the
former heaven and the former land passed away, said that
he '* saw a new heaven and a new land, and then, the holy
city Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, pre-
pared as a bride adorned for her husband; and heard One
sitting upon the throne, say, Behold I make all things new."
Apoc. xxi. 1, 2, 5. That the church is understood by Jeru-
salem may be seen in the Doctrine concerning the Lord,
n. 62 to 64. Concerning its new revelations see n. 65 of the
same work.
13. VI. That the state of the world und of the church he^
fore the last judgment was as evening and night, but after it,
as morning and day. When the light of truth does not ap-
pear, there is a state of the church in the world like evening
and night; (that there was such a state before the last judg-
ment, may appear from what is said in n. 11); but when the
light of truth appears, and the truth is received, there is a
state of the church in the world like morning and day.
Hence it is, that these two states of the church are called
evening and morning, and night and day, in the Word; as
in the following passages: *' The Holy One said unto me.
Until the evening (and) the morning (be) two thousand
three hundred; then the holy thing shall be justified," Dan.
viii. 14. " The vision of the evening and the morning is
truth," Dan. viii. 26. '* There shall be one day, which is
known to Jehovah, neither day nor night, for about the time
of evening there shall be light," Zech. xiv. 7. '' One cry-
ing unto me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said. The morning cometh, and also the
night," Isaiah xxi. 11, 12. Concerning the last time of the
church, Jesus said, '* Watch, for ye know not when the
CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 89
Lord of the house will come, whether at evening, at mid-
night) at cock-crowing, or in the morning," Mark xiii. 35.
''Jesus said, I must work while it is day; the night cometh,
when no one can work," John ix. 4; and elsewhere, as in
Is&iah xvii. 14. Jer. vi. 4, 5. Psalm xxx. 6. Psalm Ixv.
9. Psalm xc. 6. Since such things are understood by
evening and morning, therefore thei Lord, in order to fulfil
the Word, also was buried in the evening and irose again in
the morning.
OF THE LAST JUDGMENT UPON THE REFORMED.
14. Thb former work On the Last Judgment treated of
the judgment upon those who are understood by the Baby«-
lon; and somewhat of the judgment upon the Mahometans,
and upon the Gentiles; but not of the judgment upon the
Reformed. It was said only that the Reformed were in the
middle, arranged there according to countries; the Papists
around them ; the Mahometans around the Papists, and the
Gentiles, and peoples of various religions in the circumfe-
rences. The Rfeformed constituted the middle, or central
region, because they read the Word, and worshiped the
Lord, and hence had the greatest light: and spiritual light,
proceeding from the Lord as a sun, which sun in its essence
IS Divine Love, extends itself in all possible directions, and
enlightens even those who are in the extreme circumfe-
rences, opening in them the faculty of understanding truths,
in as far as their religions allow them to be receptive. For
spiritual light in its essence is Divine Wisdom, and it enters
the intellect in man, in as far as, from knowledges received,
he has the faculty of perceiving it; and does not pass
through spaces, like the light of the world; but through the
afiections and perceptions of truth, therefore, in an instant,
to the last limits of the heavens. From these affections and
perceptions, arise the appearances of spaces in the spiritual
world. On this subject much may be seen in The Doc-
trine CONCERNING THE SaCRED ScRIPTURE, U. 104 to 113.
15. The last judgment upon the Reformed shall be de-
scribed in the following order.
I. Upon whom among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected.
II. Of the signs and visitations preceding the last judg-
ment.
III. How the universal judgment was effected.
IV. Of the salvation of the sheep.
84 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT*
16. I. Upon whom among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected. The last judgment was effected upon those
only of the Reformed, who professed a belief in God, read
the Word, heard sermons, partook of the sacrament of the
supper, and did not neglect the solemnities of church wor-
ship, in the world; and yet thought that adulteries, various
kinds of theft, lying, revenge, hatred, and the like, were
allowable. These, although they professed a belief in God,
still made no account of sins against Him; though they
rea^ the Word, still they made no accojunt of the precepts
of life in it; though they heard sermons, still they paid no
attention to them ; though they partook of th^ sacrament of
the supper, still they desisted not from the evils of their
former lives ; and though they did not neglect the solemni^
ties of worship, still they amended their lives in nothing.
Thus they lived as if from religion in their externals, yet
were totally destitute of it in their internals. These are
they who are understood by the Dragon in the Apocalypse
xii. ; for it is there said of the Dragon, that it was seen in
heaven, that it. fought with Michael in heaven, and that it
drew down the third part of the stars from heaven; which
things are said, because these spirits, by means of the pro-
fession of a belief in God, by reading the Word and by out-
ward worship, communicated with heaven. ^ These same
spirits are understood by the goats in Matthew xxiv.; to
whom it is not Baid that they did evils, but that they omitted
to do goods; and all such omit to do goods which are goods,
because they do not shun evils as sins, and, because, al-
though they do not commit them, they think them allowable,
and therefore commit them in spirit, and in body, too, when
they can.
17. Upon all such among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected, but not upon those, who did not believe in God,
who contemned the Word, and rejected from their hearts the
holy things of the church, for all these, so soon as ever
they went from the natural into the spiritual world, were
cast into hell.
18. All who lived like Christians in externals, and made
no account of a Christian life, were outwardly in unity with
the heavens, but inwardly with the hells, and since thej
could not be torn away instantaneously from their conjunc-
tion with heaven, they were detained in the world of spirits,
which is mediate between heaven and hell, and it was there
permitted them to form societies, and to live together as in
the world; and by arts unknown in the world, to cause
splendid appearances, and by this means to persuade them-
CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 85
selves and others,^tfaat they vere in heaven ; from the out-
ward appearance, therefore, they called their societies
heavens. The heavens and the lands in which they dwelt,
are understood by the former heaven, and the former land
which passed away; Apoc. xxi. 1.
19. In the mean time, so long as they remained there, the
interiors of their minds were closed over, and the exteriors
were opened; by which means, their evils, which united
them with the hells, were not apparent. But on the ap-
proach of the last judgment, their interiors were unclosed,
and they then appeared before all, such as they really were;
and since they then acted in unity with the hells, they were
no longer able to simulate Christian lives, but rushed with
delight into evils and crimes of every description, and were
turned into devils, and, moreover, were seen as such, some
black, some fiery, and some livid like corpses; those who
were in the pride of self-intelligence, appearing black; those
who were in the furious love of ruling over all, appearing
fiery; and those who were in the neglect and contempt of
truth, appearing livid like corpses. Thus were the scenes of
those theatres changed.
20. The Reformed constitute the inmost part or middle
region of the world of spirits, which is mediate between
heaven and hell, and are there arranged according to coun-
tries. In the centre of this middle region are the English;
towards the south and the east of it are the Dutch; towards
the north, the Germans; towards the west and the north, the
Swedes; and towards the west, the Danes. But those only,
who have led lives of charity and its faith, are in that middle
region: many societies of them dwell there. Surrounding
them are those of the Reformed, who have not led lives of
faith and charity: these are they who made seeming heavens
to themselves. But there is a different arrangement of all
in heaven, as well as of all in hell. The reason why the
Reformed constitute the middle is, because the Word is
read, and the Lord is worshiped among them, in conse-
quence of which, the light is greatest where they are; and
thence, as from a centre, this light is propagated to, and
enlightens, all the circumferences. For the light in which
spirits and angels are, proceeds from the Lord as a Sun,
and this Sun, in its essence, is Divine Love, and the light
which proceeds from it, in its essence, is Divine Wisdom:
all the spirituality [omne spirituale] of that world is derived
from it. Concerning the Lord, as the Sun of the spiritual
world, and concerning the light and heat of that Sun, see the
work on Heaven and Hell, n. 116 to 140.
86 CONTINUATION OP THE LAST JUDGMENT.
21. Every arrangement of the societies in that world, is
an arrangement according to the differences of love; the
reason of which is, that love is the life of man, and the
Lord, Who is Divine Love Itself, arranges them according to
receptions of it; and the differences of loves are innumera-
ble, and known to no one, but the Lord alone. He so con-
joins the societies, that they all lead, as it were, one life of
man ; the societies of the heavens, one life of celestial and
spiritual love; the societies of the hells, one life of diaboli-
cal and infernal love ; the heavens and hells He conjoins by
oppositions. On account of this arrangement, every man,
after death, goes into the society of his own love, and can-
not go into any other, for his love opposes it. Hence it is,
that they who are in spiritual love are in heaven, but that
they who are in mere natural love are in hell. Spiritual
love is entirely and only implanted [unice inditur] by a life
of charity, and natural love remains natural, if a life of
charity is omitted ; and natural love, if it is not subjected to
spiritual love, is opposed to it.
22. Ffom these particulars it may appear, upon whom of
the Reformed, the last judgment was effected; — ^that it was
not upon those who were in the centre, but upon those who
were around it: whose external morality, as was said above,
gave them the outward appearance of Christians, while in^
wardly they were not Christians, because they were desti-
tute of spiritual life.
23. Of the signs and msUalions preceding the last judgment
There was seen, as it were a stormy cloud upon those who
had formed to themselves seeming heavens, which appear-
ance resulted from the presence of the Lord in the angelic
heavens above them, especially from His presence in the
ultimate heaven, lest any of the angels of that heaven, in
ponsequence of conjunction with these spirits, should be
carried away, and perish with them. The superior heavens
moreover were brought down nearer to them, by means of
which, the interiors of those upon whom the judgment was
about to come were disclosed; on which disclosure, they
appeared no longer iike moral Christians, as before, but
like demons; in tumults, and in mutual strife, about God,
the Lord, the Word, faith, and the church; and because
their concupiscences to evils were then let loose, they re-
jected all these subjects with contempt and ridicule, anii
rushed into every kind of enormity. Thus the state of those
heavenly inhabitants was changed. Then at the same time,
all their splendid appearances, which they had made to
themselves by arts unknown in the world, vanished away;
CONTINUATION OP THE LAST JUDGMENT. 87
their palaces were turned into vile huts; their gardens into
stagnant pools; their temples into heaps of rubbish; and
the very hills they inhabited into mounds of gravel, and into
other similar things, which corresponded to their depraved
animi, and their cupidities. For all the visible things of the
spiritual world, are the correspondences of the affections of
spirits and angels. These were the signs of the coming
judgment.
24. As the disclosure of the interiors increased, so the
order among the inhabitants was changed and inverted.
Those who were most potent in reasonings against the holy
things of the church, rushed into the middle, and assumed
the dominion; and the rest, who were less potent in reason-
ings, receded to the circumferences, and acknowledged
those who were in the middle, as their tutor-angels. Thus
they banded themselves into the form (facies) of hell.
25. These changes of their state were accompanied by
various concussions of their dwellings and lands; which
were followed by earthquakes, mighty according to their
perversities. Here and there, too, gaps were made towards
the hells which were under them, and a communication was
thus opened with these hells: there were then seen exhala-
tions ascending, as of smoke mingled with sparks of fire.
These also were signs which preceded, and they are under-
stood by the Lord's words on the consummation of the age,
and afterwards on the last judgment, in the Evangelists,
'' Nation shall be stirred up against nation; there shall be
great earthquakes in divers places; signs also from heaven,
terrible and great. And there shall be distress of nations,
the sea and the salt water roaring."
26. Visitations also were made by angels; for before
any ill-constituted [male sarta] society perishes, visitation
always precedes. The angels exhorted them to desist, and
denounced destruction upon them if they did not. At the
same time they sought out, and separated, any good spirits
who were intermingled with them. But the multitude, exci-
ted by their leaders, reviled the angels, and^ rushed in upon
them, for the purpose of dragging them into some public
place, and treating them in an abominable manner; just in-
deed ^as was done in Sodom. The most of these spirits
were professors of faith separated from charity ; and there
were even some among them, who professed charity, and
yet led wicked lives.
27. III. How the tmiversal judgment was effected. Since
the visitations and premonitory signs of the coming judgment
could not deter their animi from abominable -practices, and
8
88 CONTINUATION OP THE LAST JUDGMENT.
from seditious plottings against those who acknowledged the
Lord as the God of heaven and earth, held the Word sa-
cred, and led a life of charity, therefore the last judgment
came upon them. It was thus effected.
28. The Lord was seen in a bright cloud with angels, and
a sound as of trumpets was heard from it; which was a sign
representative of the protection of the angels of heaven by
the Lord, and of the gathering of the good from every
quarter. For the Lord does not bring destruction upon any,
but only protects his own, and draws them away from com-
munication with the wicked; whereupon, the wicked come
into their own concupiscences, by which they are impelled
into every kind of abomination. Then all who were about
to perish, were seen together in the likeness of a great
dragon, with its tail extended in a curve, and elevated
towards heaven, bending itself about on high in various di-
rection^, as though it would destroy heaven, and draw it
down: but the attempt was vain, for the tail was cast down,
and the dragon, which also appeared elevated, sank beneath.
It was granted me to see this representation, that I might
know and make known who are understood by the dragon in
the Apocalypse; namely, that the dragon means all who
read the Word, hear sermons, and perform the rites of the
church, making no account of the concupiscences of evil
which beset them, and inwardly meditating thefts and frauds,
adulteries and obscenities, hatred and revenge, lies and
blasphemies; and who thus live like devils in spirit, and like
angels in body. These constituted the body of the dragon,
but the tail was composed of those who, when in the world,
lived in faith separated from charity, and were like the for-
mer in regard to thoughts and intentions.
29. Then I saw some of the rocks they inhabited subsi-
ding to the lowest depths [ima] ; some transported to a great
distance; some clefl in the middle, an<l those who were on
them cast down through the openings; and others inundated
as with a deluge. And I saw many spirits collected into
companies, as into bundles^ according to the genera and
species of evil, and cast bither and thither into whirlpools,
marshes, stagnant waters, and deserts, which were so many
hells. The rest who were not on rocks, but scattered here
and there, and who yet were in similar evils, fled affrighted
to the Papists, Mahometans, and Gentiles, and professed
their religions, which they could do without any disturbance
of the animus, because they themselves had no religion at
all; but still, lest they* should seduce these spirits also, they
were driven away, and thrust down to their own companions
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 89
iQ the hells. This is a general description of their destruc-
tion; the particulars, I saw, are, too numerous to be here
described.
30. Of the salvation of the sheep. Ailer the last judg-
ment was accomplished, there was then joy in heaven, and
also light in the world of spirits, such as was not before.
The kind of joy there was in heaven, after the dragon was
cast down, is described in the Apocalypse xii. 10, Jl, 12;
and there was light in the world of spirits, because the
infernal societies which were removed^ had been interposed,
like clouds which darken the earth. A similar light also
then arose in men in the world, giving them new enlighten-
ment.
31. I then saw angelic spirits, in great numbers, rising
from below, [ex Inferis] and elevated into heaven. They
were the sheep, there reserved, and guarded by the Lord
for ages back, lest they should come into the malignant
sphere of the influence of the dragonists, and their charity
be suffocated. These are they, who are understood in the
Word, by those who went forth from the sepulchres; also,
by the souls of those slain for the testimony of Jesus, who
were watching ; and by those who are of the first resurrec-
tion.
A CONTINUATION
CONCERNING
THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
32. The spiritual world has been treated of in a special
work on Heaven and Hell, in which many particulars of
that world are described; and since every man enters that
world after death, his state then, is also described there. It
has been commonly known, that man will live afler death,
because he is born a man, and created in the image of God,
and because the Lord, in His Word, teaches it; but the
manner of his future life has hitherto been unknown. It
has been believed that he was then a soul, of which the
90 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
only idea conceived was, that it resembled air, or ether,
with some cogitativeness residing in it, and without such
sight as belongs to the eve, without auch hearing as belongs
to the ear, and without such speech as belongs to the mouth.
And yet man is equally a man afler death; and so much a
man, that he knows no other than that he is still in the former
world; he sees, hears, and speaks, as in the former world;
he walks, runs, and sits, as in the former world; he eats
and drinks, as in the former world; he sleeps and awakens,
as in the former world; he enjoys the conjugial delight, as
in the former world; in a word, is a man, in the general,
and in every particular; from which it is plain, that death is
but a continuation of life, and a mere transit.
33. There are many causes of man's ignorance of this,
his state after death; one of which is, that he could not be
enlightened, so little faith had he in the immortality of the
soul ; as may appear from many, even of the learned, who
believe themselves to be similar to beasts, and only more
perfect than they, in having the faculty of speech; thus de-
nying the life afler death in their hearts, although they ad-
mit it with their mouths. This way of thinking of theirs
has made them so sensual, that they cannot believe that a
man is a man afler death, because they do not see him with
their eyes, for they say, how can a soul be a man? It is
not so with those who believe they will live afler death;
their interior thought is, that they shall go to heaven, enjoy
delights with the angels, see heavenly paradises, and stand
before the Lord in white garments, besides other things.
This is their interior thought; their exterior thought may
possibly wander from it, when they think of the soul, from
the hypothesis of the learned.
34. That a man is equally a man afler death, although he
is not apparent to the eyes, may appear from the angels seen
by Abraham, by Gideon, by Daniel, and other prophets;
from the angels seen in the Lord's sepulchre, and afler-
wards, oftentimes, by John in the Apocalypse; especially
from the Lord Himself, who showed his disciples that He
was a man, by touch, and by eating, and yet became invisi-
ble to their eyes. The reason why they saw Him was, be-
cause the eyes of their spirits were then opened; and when
these eyes are opened, the things in the spiritual world ap-
pear as clearly as the things in the natural world.
35. Since it has pleased the Lord to open for me the eyes
of my spirit, and to keep them open now for nineteen years,
it has been given me to see the things which are in the
spiritual world, as well as to describe them. I can asseve-
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 9l
rate, that they are not visions, but things seen in all wake-
fulness.
36. The difference between a . man in the natural world,
and a man in the spiritual world, is, that the one man is
clothed in a spiritual body, but the other in a natural body;
and the spiritual man sees the spiritual man, as clearly as
the natural man sees the natural man ; but the natural man
cannot see the spiritual man, and the spiritual man cannot
see the natural man, on account of the difference between
natural and spiritual; what kind of difference this is, may
be described, but not in a few words.
37. From the visual experience of so many years, I am
enabled to relate the following: that there are lands in the
spiritual world, just as in the natural world; and that there
are hills and mountains, and plains and valleys, also foun-
tains and rivers, lakes and seas; that there are paradises
and gardens, and groves and woods, and palaces and houses;
also, that there are writings and books, professions and
trades ; and that there are precious stones, gold and silver;
in short, that there are all the things, in general and in
particular, which exist in the natural world, and that these
things are infinitely more perfect in the heavens.
38. But the difference in general is this; that all things
in the spiritual world, are from a spiritual origin, and hence,
as tOv their essence, are spiritual, for they are from the sun
there, which is pure love;, and that all things in the natural
world, are from a natural origin, and hence, as to their es-
sence, are natural, for they are from the sun there, which is
pure fire. Hence it is, that the spiritual man must be nour-
ished with food from a spiritual origin, as the natural man
is, with food from a natural origin. More may be seen in
the work on Heaven and Hell.
OF THE ENGLISH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
39. There are two states of thought in man, an external
and an internal state; man is in the external state in the
natural world ; in the internal state in the spiritual world:
these states with the good, are united, but not with the
wicked. What a man is, as regards his internal state, is
rarely manifest in the natural world, because, from his in-
fancy, he has chosen to be moral, and has learned to seem.
But what he is, clearly appears in the spiritual world, for
spiritual light reveals it, and besides, man is then a spirit,
and the spirit is the internal man. Now, since it has been
8*
92 CONTINUATION OF THE SriRITUAL WORLD.
given me to be in that light, and from it, to see what the
internal is, in the men of various kingdoms, by an inter-
course of many years with angels and spirits, it behoves me,
from the importance of the subject, to declare what I have
seen. I shall here confine myself to saying something of
the noble English nation.
40. The more excellent of the English nation, are in the
centre of all Christians, (see above, n. 20.), and the reason
why they are in the centre is, because they have interior
intellectual light. This is not apparent to any one in the
natural world, yet it is conspicuously so in the spiritual
world. This light, they derive from the liberty they enjoy
of thinking, and thence of speaking and of writing. Among
the people of other nations, who have not such liberty, in-
tellectual light is buried, because it has no outlet. This
light, however, of itself, is not active, but is rendered active
by others, especially by men of reputation and authority
among them. As soon as any thing is said by these men,
or as soon as any thing they approve, is read, that light
shines forth; and seldom sooner. On this account the
English have governors placed over them in the spiritual
world, and priests of great name for learning and powerful
ability given them, whose commands and monitions, from
this their natural disposition, they cheerfully obey.
41. They rarely go out of their own society, because
they love it, even as, in the world they love their country.
Moreover, there is a similitude of animi among them, in
consequence of which, they contract intimacy with friends
of their own country, and seldom with others: and they
mutually minister to each other's wants, and love sincerity.
42. There are two great cities similar to London, into
which many of the English enter after death: these cities,
it was given me to see, as well as to walk through. The
middle of the one city answers to that part of the English
London, where there is a meeting of merchants, called the
Exchange; there dwell the governors. Above that middle
is the east; below it is the west; on the right side of it is the
south ; on the lef^ side of it is the north. They who preem-
inently have led a life of charity, dwell in the eastern quar-
ter, where there are magnificent palaces. The wise, among
whom there is much splendor, dwell in the southern quarter.
They who foremostly love the liberty of speaking and of
writing, dwell in the northern quarter. They who make
profession of faith, dwell in the western quarter; to the right
in this quarter, there is an entrance into, and an exit from
the city; they who live wickedly are there sent out of it.
CONTINUATION OP THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 93
The priests, who are in the west, and profess faith (as was
said above), dare not enter the city through the broad ways,
but only through the narrow streets, because they who are
in the faith of charity, are the only inhabitants who are tol-
erated in the city. I have heard persons complaining, that
the preachers in the west make up their discourses with such
mingled art and eloquence, interweaving the strange doc-
trine of justification by faith, that they leave it doubtful
whether good is to be done or not; they preach intrinsic
good, and separate it from extrinsic good, which they some-
times say is meritorious, and therefore not acceptable to
God; yet still they call it good, because it is useful. But
when those who dwell in the eastern and southern quarters,
hear such mystical discourses, they walk out of the churches,
and the preachers are afterwards deprived of the priestly
office.
43. The other great city similar to London, is not in the
Christian centre, (see n. 20) but lies beyond it in the north.
They who are inwardly wicked, enter it ailer death. In the
middle of it there is an open communication with hell, by
which the inhabitants are absorbed in their turns.
44. I once heard some of the English clergy conversing
together concerning faith alone, and I saw them form a cer-
tain image, which repi^esented solitary faith. It appeared
in obscure lumen like a great giltnt, and in their eyes like a
handsome man; but when the light of heaven was let in
upon it, the upper part of it appeared like a monster, and
the lower like a serpent, not unlike the description which is
given of Dagon, the idol of the Philistines. When they
saw this, they led it, and the bystanders cast it into a stag-
nant pond.
45. It was perceptible to me, from those of the English
who are in the spiritual world, that this nation has, as it
were, a twofold theology, derived on the one hand, from the
doctrine of faith, and on the other, from the doctrine of life;
from the doctrine of faith, with those who are initiated into
the priesthood: from the doctrine of life, with those who
are not initiated into the priesthood, and who are commonly
called the laity. This doctrine of life is avowed in an ex-
hortation which is read in the churches on certain Sabbath-
days, to those who take the sacrament of the supper; and
it is there openly declared, that if they do not shun evils as
sins, they cast themselves into eternal damnation, and that
if they then attend the holy communion, the devil will enter
into them, as he entered into Judas. I have sometimes told
the clergy, that this doctrine of life does not agree with
94 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
their doctrine of faith: they made no reply, but entertained
thoughts they dared not utter. You may see that exhorta-
tion in THE Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,
n. 5, 6, 7.
46. I have often seen a certain Englishman, who became
celebrated by a book he published some years ago, in which
he attempted to establish the doctrine of a conjunction of
faith and charity, by an influx, and interior operation of the
Holy Spirit. He gave out, that this influx affected man in
an inexpressible manner, and without his being conscious of
it, but did not touch, much less manifestly move his will, or
excite his thought, to do any thing as of himself, except
permissively ; the reason being, that nothing of man might
enter into union with the Divine Providence; also, that
thus evils might not appear in the sight of God. He there-
fore excluded the external exercises of charity from having
any concern in salvation, but admitted them for the sake of
the public good. Since his arguments were ingenious, and
the snake in the grass was not seen, his book was received
as most orthodox. This author retained the same dogma
after his departure from the world, nor could he recede from
it, because it was confirmed in him. The angels conversed
with him, and told him, that his dogma was not truth, but
mere ingeniosity, aided by eloquence, and that the truth is,
that man ought to shun evil, and do good, as from himself,
yet with an acknowledgment, that it is from the Lord, and
that there is no faith before this is done, — still less, they
said, is the mere thought, faith, which is called so. And
since this was opposed to his dogma, it was permitted him,
of his own sagacity, to inquire further, whether any such
unknown influx, and internal operation, apart from the ex-
ternal operation of man, is possible. He was then seen to
strain his mind, and to wander about (pervagari vias) ia
thought, always in the persuasion, that man was no other-
wise renewed and saved ; but as often as he came to the
end of his journey, his eyes were opened, and he saw that
he was wandering, and even confessed it to those who were
present. I saw him wandering thus for two years, and in
the end of his journeyings, / heard him confess, that no
such influx is given, unless evil in the external man be re-
moved, which is effected by shunning evils as sins, as if
from one's self; and I heard him at length declaring, that all
who confirm themselves in that heresy, will be insane from
the pride of self-intelligence.
47. I have conversed with Melancthon^ and questioned
bim concerning his state; but he was not willing to make
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 95
any reply: wherefore, I was informed of his lot by others.
They told me, that he is in a fretted stone chamber, and in
hell, alternately, and that, in his chamber, he appears clad
in a bear's skin on account of the cold, and that such is the
filth there, that' he does not admit those visiters from the
world, whom the repute of his name inspires with a desire
of seeing him. He still speaks of faith alone, which, in
the world, he was foremost in establishing.
OF THE DUTCH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
48. It was said above, n. 20, that Christians, among
whom the Word is read, and the Lord worshiped, are in
the middle of the whole spiritual circle of nations and peo-
ples, because spiritual light is greatest among them, and
thence, as from a centre, is propagated to, and enlightens,
all, even the remotest circumferences: in accordance with
what has been said in the Doctrine op the New Jerusa-
lem concerning the Sacred Scripture, n. 104 to 113.
In this middle, the Reformed Christians have places allotted
them, according to their reception of spiritual light from the
Lord; and since among the English that light is treasured
up in the intellectual part, they, therefore, are in the very
centre of the middle region; and since the Dutch keep that
light more nearly conjoined to ifatural lumen, and hence,
there is no such brightness of light apparent among them,
but in its place a certain opacity, which is receptive of ra-
tionality from spiritual light, and at the same time from spir-
itual heat, they, therefore, in the Christian middle region
have obtained dwellings in the east, and in the south; in
the east, from the faculty of receiving spiritual heat, which
in them is charity, and in the south, from the faculty of re-
ceiving spiritual light, which in them is faith. That the
quarters in the spiritual world are not like the quarters in
the natural world, and that dwellings according to quarters,
are dwellings according to the reception of faith and love,
and that they who excel in love and charity, are in the east,
and they who excel in intelligence and faith, are in the
south, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n.
141 to 153. Another reason why the Dutch are in these
quarters of the Christian middle region is, that trade is
their final love, and money is the mediate subservient love,
and such love is spiritual; but where money is the final
love^^nd trade the Q)ediii>te subservient love, such Iqv^ is
96 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
natural, and originates in avarice. In the before-mentioned
spiritual love, which, regarded in itself, is the common good,
in which and from which is the good of country, the Dutch
excel other nations.
49. The Dutch adhere more firmly than others to the
principles of their religion, and do not give them up, and if
they are convinced that one or the other of them is errone-
ous, still, they do not confess it, but relapse into their former
opinion, and remain where they were: thus they remove
themselves from an interior intuition of truth, by keeping
their reason under obedience on spiritual subjects. In con-
sequence of this their nature, when they enter the spiritual
world after death, they are prepared for receiving the Spirit-
ual of heaven, which is Divine Truth, quite differently from
other nations. They are not taught, because they are not
receptive of instruction^ but what heaven is, is described to
them, and afterwards it is granted them to ascend there, and
to see it, and then, whatever agrees with their genius is
infused into them, which being done, they are sent down,
and return to their companions, with a strong desire for
heaven. If then they do not receive this truth, that God is
One in Person, and in Essence, and that that God is the
Lord, and that in Him is the Trinity ; and also this truth,
that faith and charity as matters of knowledge and dis-
course, are of no avail, apart from the life of faith and char-
ity, and that faith and charity are given by the Lord, when
evils are avoided as sins? — if when they are taught these
truths, they turn themselves away, and still think of God,
as existing in three persons, and of religion, merely that
there is such a thing, they are reduced to misery, and their
trade is taken away, until they are brought to the greatest
extremities. They are then led to those who have abund-
ance of every thing, and a flourishing trade, and when
there, it is insinuated into them from heaven, to think of
the reason of their own condition, and at the same time, to
reflect on the faith of these persons concerning the Lord,
and upon their life, — in that they shun evils as sins. In a
little time they make inquiries, and perceive an agreement
of what they Acar, with their own thought and reflection:
this is done repeatedly. At length, they think of them-
selves, that in order to be relieved from their miseries, they
must believe, and do the same. Then, as they receive that
faith, and live that life of charity, opulence and joyousness
of life are corrferred upon them. In this manner, those of
them, who have led any thing of a life of charity in the
world, are amended by themselves, and not by others, and
CONTINUATION OP THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 97
are prepared for heaven. They afterwards become more
constant than others, so that they may be fitly called con*-
Btancies; and they do not allow themselves to be led away
by any reasoning, or fallacy, or obscurity brought on by so-
phistries, or by any preposterous view, deduced from mere
confirmatory appearances.
50. The Dutch are easily distinguished from others in the
Bpiritual world, because they appear in the same kind of
garments as in the natural world, excepting, that the dress
is neater among those who have received faith and spiritual
life. They appear in similar garments, because they re-
main steadfastly in the principles of their own religion;
and all in the spiritual world, are clothed according to
their religious principles; whence it is, that they who are
in Divine Truths, have garments of white and of fine
linen.
51. The cities which the Dutch inhabit, are guarded in a
peculiar manner, all their streets being covered in, and pro-
vided with gates, in order that they may not be overlooked
from the surrounding rocks and hills. This the inhabitants
do, from their inherent prudence in concealing their designs,
and not divulging their intentions; for these things in the
Bpiritual world, are portrayed by inspection. If any one
enters a city with the animus of exploring their state, when
he is about departing, he is led to the closed gates of the
streets, backwards and forwards from one to another, and
this, to the most wearisome extent, and he is then let out:
all this being done, to prevent him from returning. Wives
who afiect authority over their husbands, dwell on one side
of the city, and only meet them by invitation, given for-
mally; and the husbands then lead them to houses, where
married pairs are living, without there being any dominion
of the one over the other, and show them how ornamental
and how neat their houses are, and how joyous their life is,
and that these are the results of mutual and conjugial love.
Those wives who attend to, and are afiected with these
things, cease to domineer, and they live with their hus-
bands, and they then obtain a dwelling nearer to the middle,
and are called angels. The reason is, that conjugial love is
a celestial love, which is free from imperiousn^ss.
63. In the days of the last judgment, I saw many thou-
sands of that nation cast out of the cities in the spiritual
world, and out of the villages, and surrounding country.
They were those, who, when in the world, had done no-
thing of good from any religion or conscience, but merely
to preserve reputation, that they might appear sincere for
98 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
the sake of gain ; for such persons, when they no longer
have the prospect of fame and gain, as is the case in the
spiritual world, then rush into every abomination; and when
they are in the fields, and without the cities, they rob every
one they encounter. I saw them cast into a fiery gulf
stretching under the eastern tract; and into a dark cavern
stretching under the southern tract. This I saw on the 9th
day of January, 1757. Those only were lefl, among whom
there was religion, and a conscience derived from religion.
54. I have spoken, but only once, with Calvin; he was in
a society of heaven, which appears in front, above the head;
and he said, that he did not agree with Luther and Melanc-
thon, about faith alone, because works are so often named
in the Word, and the doing of them commanded, and that,
therefore, faith and works ought to be conjoined. I was
told by one of the governors of that society, that Calvin was
accepted in his society, because he was honest (probus),
and made no disturbance.
55. What Luther's lot is, shall be told elsewhere, for I
have often seen and heard him. Here, I shall only say,
that he has oflen wished to recede from his faith alone, but
in vain ; and that therefore, he is still in the world of spirits,
which is mediate between heaven and hell; where he some-
times undergoes great sufferings.
OF THE PAPISTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
56. The Papists, and the last judgment upon them, were
treated of in the small work On the Last Judgment, n.
53 to 64. The Papists in the spiritual world appear encir-
cling the Reformed, and are separated from them by an in-
terval, which they are not permitted to pass. Nevertheless,
those, who are of the order of Jesuits, contrive, by clandes-
tine arts, to communicate with them, and send out emissa-
ries, too, by unknown paths, for the purpose of seducing
them. But they are discovered, and after being punished,
they are either sent back to their companions, or are cast
into hell.
57. After the last judgment, their state was so changed,
that they were not allowed to gather together in companies,
as they had done; but ways were appointed to every love,
both good and evil, which those who come from the world,
immediately enter, and go to a society correspondent to
their love. Thus the wicked are borne away to a society in
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 99
conjunction with the heJls, and the good to a society in con-
junction with the heavens; and, in this manner, the future
formation of artificial heavens, is provided against. Such
Societies in the world of spirits, which is mediate between
heaven and hell, are innumerable; being as many, as there
are genera and species of good and evil affections: and in
the meantime, before spirits are either elevated into heaven,
or cast down into hell, they are in spiritual conjunction with
men in the world, because they, too, are in the midst be-
tween heaven and hell.
68. All those of the Papists, who have not been complete
idolaters, and who, from (heir religious principles, have
performed good works ^ out of a sincere heart, and have
looked to the Lord, are led to societies which are instituted
in the confines nearest to the Reformed, and are instructed
there, the Word being read, and the Lord preached to
them, and they who receive truths, and apply them to life,
are elevated into heaven, and are made angels. There are
many such societies of them in every quarter, and they are
guarded on all sides from the treacheries and cunning de-
vices of the monks, and from the Babylonish leaven. More-
over, all their infants are in heaven, because, being educated
by the angels under the guidance of the Lord, they know
nothing of the falses of their parent's religion.
59. All who go from the countries of the earth into the
spiritual world, are at first kept in the confession of faith,
and in the religion of their country; and so, therefore, are
the Papists. On this account, they always have some rep-
resentative Pontiff set over them, whom moreover they
adore with the same ceremony as in the world. Seldom
does any Pope from the world, act the Pontiff there; yet
he who was Pope twenty years ago, was appointed over the
Papists, because he loved to think, that the Word was more
sacred than is believed, and that the Lord ought to be wor-
shiped. But, afler filling the office of Pope for some years,
he abdicated it of his own accord, and betook himself to the
Reformed Christians, among whom he still is, and enjoys a
blessed life. It was granted me to speak with him, and he
said, that he adores the Lord alone, because He is God,
Who has power over heaven and earth, and that the invoca-
tions of saints, and their masses, too, are absurdities; and
that when he was in the world, he intended to restore his
church, but that for reasons, which he mentioned, he found
it impossible to do so. When the great northern city of
the Papists was destroyed, on the day of the last judg-
ment, I saw him carried out of it on a couch, and taken to
•_• •
100 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WO^ILO.
a place of safety. A widely different event overtook his
successor. .
60. Here I am allowed to add a certain memorable cir-
cumstance. It was granted me to speak with Louis the
XIV., grandfather of the reigning King of France, who,
whilst he lived in the world, worshiped the Lord, read the
Word, and acknowledged the Pope only as the head of the
church; in consequence of which, he has great dignity in
the spiritual world, and governs the best society of the
French nation. Once I saw him as it were descending by
ladders, and after he descended, I heard him saying, that
he seemed to himself as if at Versailles, and then there
was silence for about half an hour; at the end of that time,
he said, that he had spoken with the King of France, his
grandson, concerning the Bull Unigenitus, advising him to
desist from his former design, and not to accept it, because
it was detrimental to the French nation ; he said, that he
insinuated this into his thought profoundly. This happened
in the year 1759, on the 13th day of December, about eight
o'clock in the evening.
OF THE POPISH SAINTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
61. It is known that man derives implanted or hereditary
evil from his parents, but in what it consists is known to
few. It consists in the love of ruling, which is such, that in
as far as the reins are given it, in so far it bursts forth, until
it even burns with the lust of ruling over all, and at length
of wishing to be invoked and worshiped as God. This love
is the serpent, which deceived Eve and Adam, for it said to
the woman, " God knows, that in the day ye eat of the fruit
of the tree, your eyes shall be opened, and then ye shall be
as God." Genesis iii. 4, 5. In the same proportion there-
fore as man rushes with loosened reins into this love, in the
same proportion he averts himself from God, and turns to-
wards himself, and becomes an atheist ; and then the Divine
Truths which belong to the Word, may possibly serve as
means, but inasmuch as dominion is the end, the means are
only loved in the ratio of their subserviency. This is the
cause, why those who dre in the mediate and in the ultimate
degree of the love of ruling, are all in hell, for that love is
the devil there; and in hell there are some of such a nature,
that they cannot bear to hear any one mention God.
62. This love possesses those of the Papal nation, who
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 101
have been dominant from the stimulus of its delight, and
have despised the Word, and preferred before it the dictates
of the Pope. They are utterly devastated as regards exter-
nals, until they no longer know any thing of the church,
and then they are cast down into hell and become devils.
There is a certain separate hell for those who wish to be
invoked as Gods, where such is their phantasy, that they
do not see what is, but what is not. Their delirium is of
the kind which affects persons, in a malignant fever, who see
things floating in the air, and in the chamber, and on the
covering of the bed, — things which are not. This most
dreadful evil, is understood by 'Mhe head of the serpent,
which is bruised by the Seed of the woman, and which
wounded His heel," Genesis iii. 15. The heel of the
Lord, Who is the Seed of the woman, is the Divine pro-
ceeding in ultimates, which is the Word in the sense of the
letter.
63. Because man's hereditary nature consists in the desire
of ruling, and of ruling, as the reins are loosened, suc-
cessively over more and more, and at length over all, and
because the wish to be invoked and wori^iiped as God, is
the inmost of this love of ruling, therefore all who have
been canonized by the Papal Bulls, are removed from the
eight of othefs and hidden, and are deprived of all inter-
course with their worshipers. This is done, lest that worst
root of evils should be excited in them, and they should be
hurried into such phantastic deliriums, as prevail in the
above-mentioned hell. In such deliriums are those, who,
during their lives in the world, have studiously sought to be
made saints after death, for the purpose of being invoked.
64. Many of the Papal nation, especially the monks,
when they enter the spiritual world, seek the saints, each
the saint of his own order; yet do not find them, and marvel
that they do not; but are afterwards instructed by others,
that their saints are either intermingled with those who are
in the lieavens, or with those who are in the hells, every
one of them alccording to his life in the world ; and that in
whichsoever they be, they know nothing of the, worship and
invocation which is paid them, and that they who do know
it, and wish to be invoked, are in that separate and delirious
hell. The worship of saints is such an abomination in
heaven, that the bare hearing of it causes horror, because,
in as far as worship is paid to any man, in so far it is with-
held from the Lord, for in this case He alone cannot be
worshiped ; and if the Lord is not alone worshiped, a dis-
w d
102 CONTIXUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORL0«
crimination, is made, which destroys communion, and thd
felicity of life which flows from it.
65. That I might know, for the sake of informing others^
what manner of men the Popish saints are, as many as «b
hundred of them, who were aware of their canonization,
were brought up from the region below, [inferiori terrA],
The greater part ascended from behind, and only a few in
front, and I spoke with one of them, who they said was
Xavier. During our conversation he was quite idiotic, yet
he was able to tell me, that in his place, where he remains
confined, he is not so; but that he becomes idiotic as oflen
as he thinks himself a saint. I heard the same thing mur«
mured by those who were behind.
66. It is otherwise with the sorcalled saints who are in
heaven : they are utterly ignorant of what is doing upon
earth, nor have I conversed with them, lest any idea of
the matter should enter their minds. On one occasion only,
Mary, the mother of the Lord, passed by, and appeared
over head in white raiment, and then, stopping awhile, she
said, that she had been the mother of the Lord, and that
He was indeed born of her, but that He became God, and
put off all the human He derived from her, and that there'-
fore she now adores Him as her God, and is unwilling that
any one should acknowledge Him as her son, because in
Him all is Divine.
67. I shall here add a certain memorable circumstance.
A certain woman with glittering raiment and saint-like coun-
tenance, occasionally appears in a middle altitude, to the
Parisians who are associated in the spiritual world, and
tells them she is Genevieve. But as soon as any of them
begin to worship her, then instantly her countenance is
changed, and her raiment too, and she becomes like an
ordinary woman, and chides them for wishing to adore a
female, who, among her companions, is in no more repute
than a servant-maid ; and expresses her wonder that men in
the world are caught by such absurdities. The angels said,
that she appears, for the purpose of separating those who
worship man, from those who worship the Lord.
OF THE MAHOMETANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD; AND
OF MAHOMET.
68. The Mahometans in the spiritual world appear be-
hind the Papists in the west, and form as it were a circle
around them. The principal reason why they appear in
CONTINUATION OP Ttilfi SPIRITUAL WORLD. 103
this situation is, because they acknowledge the Lord as thie
grand Prophet, as the Son of God, and the Wisest of till
Who was sent into the world to instruct mankind. Every
one, in that world, dwells at a distance from the Christian
centre, where the Reformed are, according to his confession
of the Lord, and of one God ; for that confession conjoins
the animus with heaven, and determines distance from the
east, above which the Lord is. They who, in consequence
of evil lives, do not from the heart make that confession,
are in the hells beneath them.
69. Since religion constitutes man's inmost, and all else
proceeds from the inniost, and since Mahomet with Ma-
hometans is closely connected with religion, therefofe some
Mahomet is always placed in their sight; and in order that
they may turn their faces to the east, above which the Lord
rs, he is placed beneath in the Christian centre. It is not
the Mahomet who wrote the Alcoran, but another who fills
bis office; nor is it always the same, but the person is
changed. One Mahomet was a native of Saxony, who had
been taken by the Algerines, and became a Mahometan;
and who, having been also a Christian, was actuated to
speak to the Mahometans concerning the Lord, that He
was not the Son of Joseph, as they believed in the world,
but the Son of God Himself, by which he insinuated into
them an idea of the unity of the Lord's Person and Essence
with the Father. To this Mahomet, others afterwards suc-
ceeded, who were actuated to declare the same. By this
means, many of the Mahometans accede to a truly Christian
faith concerning the Lord, and they who do so accede, are
carried to a society nearer to the east, where it is granted
them to communicate with heaven, into which they are
afterwards elevated. In the place where the seat of that
Mahomet is, there appears a flame, as of a small torch, to
distinguish him, but it is invisible to all but Mahometans.
70. Mahomet himself, who wrote the Alcoran, is not to
be seen at the present day. I was told, that in early times
he presided over the Mahometans, but that he desired to
domineer over all things of their religion as a God, and
that therefore he was cast out of the seat he held beneath
the Papists, and was sent downwards, to the right side, near
the south. Certain societies of Mahometans were once
excited by evil spirits to acknowledge Mahomet as their God.
To quell the sedition, Mahomet was raised up from below
[ex inferis], and shewn to them, and i, too, then saw him.
He appeared like corporeal spirits, who have no interior
perception, his face of a hue approaching to black; and the
9*
104 CONTINUATION OP THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
only words I heard him say, were, ** I am your Mahomet;"
and shortly afterwards, he subsided, as it were, and returned
to his place.
71. As regards their religion, it was permitted in its
present form, because of its agreement with the genius of
the Orientals, (on which account, too, it became the re-
ceived religion of so many kingdoms;) and because, at the
same time, it made the precepts of the Decalogue a matter
of religion, and contained some particulars of the Word,
and, especially, because it acknowledged the Lord as the
Son of God, and the Wisest of all. And besides, it super-
seded the idolatries of many nations. The reason why
Mahomet was not made the means of opening to his follow-
ers a more internal religion, was their polygamy, which
exhales uncleanness towards heaven; for the marriage of a
husband with one. wife, corresponds to the Marriage of the
Lord and the Church.
72. Many of the Mahometans are capable of receiving
truth, and of seeing justice in reasojQS, as I was enabled to
observe, from conversations with them in the spiritual world.
I conversed with them on the One God, on the Resurrection,
and on Marriage. On the One God they said, that they*
do not comprehend the Christians when speaking of the
Trinity, and saying that there are three persons, and that
each person is God, and still asserting that God is one.
But I replied, that the angels in the heaven which is com-
posed of Christians, do not speak thus, but say, that God is
One in Essence and in Person, and that in Him there is a
Trine, and that men on earth call this Trine three persons,
and that this Trine is in the Lord. In confirmation, I read
before them out of Matthew and Luke, all which is said of
the conception of the Lord by God the Father, as well as
the passages in which the Lord Himself teaches, that He and
the Father are one. On hearing this, they had a perception
of the truth, and said, that of consequence, the Divine Es-
gence belongs to Him. On the Resurrection they said, that
thev do not comprehend Christians when they speak of the
state of man after death, making out that the soul is like wind
or air, and hence is deprived of all delight before its reunion
with the body at the day of the last judgment. But I replied
that only some talk thus, but that they who are not of that class
believe they are to go to heaven after death, to speak with
the angels, and to enter upon the fruition of heavenly joy,
which they do not conceive to be dissimilar to their joy in
the world, although they do not describe it; and 1 told
ibem, that at the present day, many particulars of the state
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 106
after death are revealed to Christians, which they did not
know before. On Marriage, I have had many conversa^
tions with them, and have told them, among other things^
that conjugial love is a celestial love, which can only exist
between two, and that a conjunction with more wives than
one, is incompatible with the heavenliness of that love.
They heard my reasons, and perceived their justice; as also
this, that polygamy was permitted them, because they are
Orientals, who without this permission would have burned
for foul adulteries more than Europeans, and would thus
have perished.
OF THE AFRICANS AND OF THE GENTILES IN THE SPI-
RITUAL WORLD.
73. Those Gentiles, who have any knowledge concern-
iog the Lord, appear encircled by those who have none ;
so that, at length, the extreme circumferences are composed
-of those only, who are complete idolaters, and have been
adorers of the sun and moon. But they who acknowledge
one God, and make precepts, like those of the Decalogue,
a part of religion and of life, are seen in a superior region,
and thus, communicate more immediately with the Chris*
tians in the centre; the communication not being intercept-
ed by the Mahometans and Papists. The Gentiles, more-
over, are distinguished according to each one's genius and
faculty of receiving' light through the heavens from the
Lord ; for there are some of them who are more internal,
and some who are more external; and these diversities are
not caused by their place of birth, but, by their religion.
The Africans are more internal than the rest of the Gentiles.
74. All who acknowledge and worship one God, the Crea-
tor of the universe, entertain concerning Him, the idea of
a Man: they say, that concerning God, no one can possibly
have any other idea. When they hear, that many think of
Him as of a small cloud, they inquire where they are, and
on being told that they are among Christians, they deny the
possibility of it. But it is replied, that Christians have this
idea, because God in the Word is called a spirit, and of
a spirit, they are accustomed to think that it is like a
particle of cloud, not knowing, that every spirit and every
an^el is a man. Yet when they were explored, to dis-
cover whether their spiritual and natural idea were alike,
it was found that they were not alike with those, who in-
wardly acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and
earth. I heard a certain Christian minister declare, that no
106 CONTINUATION OP THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
one can have an idea of a Divine Humane and I saw him
led about to various Gentiles, in succession to those who
were more and more internal, and from them to their heav-
ens, and at length to the Christian heaven, and the interior
perception of all concerning God was communicated to him,
and he perceived that their idea of God was no other than
the idea of a Man, which is the same as the idea of a Divine
Human.
75. There are many societies of Gentiles, especially from
among the Africans, who, on being instructed by the angels
concerning the Lord, say, that it is impossible but that God,
the Creator of the universe, should appear in the world, be-
cause He created them and loves them; and that the appear-
ance must be made before the very eyes in a Human Form.
When they are told, that He did not appear as the angels
are wont, but that He was born a Man, and thus became
visible, they hesitate awhile, and inquire, whether He was
born from a hqman father, and on hearing that He was
conceived by the God of the universe, and born of a virgin,
they say, that the Divine Essence of consequence belongs
to Him, and, that inasmuch as It is Infinite and Essential
Life, He was not such a man as others are. They are
afterwards informed by the angels, that in aspect He was
like another man, but, that when He was in the world. His
Divine Essence, which in Itself is Infinite and Essential
Life, rejected the finite nature, and its life derived from the
mother, and thus made His Human, which was conceived
and born in the world. Divine. The Africans comprehend-
ed and received these truths, because they think more
internally and spiritually than other nations.
76. Such being the character of the Africans even in the
world, there is, at the present day, a revelation among
them, which commencing in the centre of their continent, is
communicated around, but does not reach their coasts.
They acknowledge our Lord as the God of heaven and
earth, and laugh at the monks in those parts they visit, and
at the Christians who talk of a three-fold Divinity, and of
salvation by mere thinking, saying, that there is no man
who worships at all, who does not live according to his
religion, and that whosoever does not, must become stupid
and wicked, because, in such case, he receives nothing from
heaven. Ingenious wickedness, too, they call stupidity,
because there is not life, but death in it. I have heard the
angels rejoicing over this revelation, because, by means of it,
a communication is opened for them with the human ration-
al, hitherto closed up, by the blind which has been drawn
eONTtJNUAtlON OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 107
over the things of faith. It was told me from heaven, that
the truths now published in the Doctrine of the New Jeru-
salem concerning the Lord, concerning the Word, and in the
Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, are orally dictated by
angelic spirits, to the inhabitants of this portion of the globe.
77. When I conversed with the Africans in the spiritual
vrorld, they appeared in garments of striped linen: they
told me, that such garments correspond to them, and that
their women wear garments of striped silk. Of their little
children, they related, that they frequently ask their nurses
for food, saying that they are hungry, and when food is set
before them, they examine and taste whether it be whole-
some, and eat but little; whence it is evident, that spiritual
hunger, which is a desire of knowing genuine truths, pro-
duces this effect; for it is a correspondence. When the
Africans wish to be informed of their state, as regards the
affection and perception of truth, they draw their swords;
and if these shine, they then know that they are in genuine
truths, in a degree according to the brightness of the shin-
ing: this, too, is from correspondence. Of marriage they
said, that it is indeed permitted them by law to have a
plurality of wives, but that still they take but one, because
love truly conjugial cannot be divided; and that if it is divi*
ded, its essence, which is heavenly, perishes, and it becomes
external and thence lascivious, and in a short time grows
vile, as its potency diminishes, and at length disgusts, when
the potency is lost; but that love truly conjugial, which is
internal, and quite- distinct from lasciviousness, remains
eternally, and increases in potency, and in the same degree,
in delight.
78. Strangers from Europe they said, are not admitted
among them, and that if any such penetrate into their coun-
try, especially if they be monks, they ask them what they
know, and when they relate any particulars of their religion
[religiosa] they call them trifles, which offend their very
ears, and they then send them out of the way to work, in
order that they may do something useful; and in case they
refuse to work, they sell them for slaves, whom their law
allows them to chastise at pleasure; and should it be found
impossible to drive them to do anything useful, they are at
last sold, for a small sum, to the lowest class of the people.
OF THE JEWS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
79. Before the last judgment, the Jews appeared in a
valley in the spiritual world, at the left side of 'the Christian
108 CONTINUATION OP THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
Centre; but after it, they were translated into the north, and
fbrbidden to hold intercourse with Christians, except with
those who wandered without the cities. In the northern
quarter, there are two great cities, into which the Jews are
led after death, and which, before the judgment, were call-
ed Jerusalems, but since, by another name, because Jerusa-
lem, after the judgment, signifies the church, in which the
Lord alone is worshiped. In these cities, converted Jews
are appointed over them, who admonish them not to speak
disrespectfully of Christ; and punish those who persist in
doing so. The streets of their cities are filled with mire up
to the ankles, and their houses are full of filth, and are so
offensive to the smell, that none can approach them.
80. An angel occasionally appears to the Jews in a mid-
dle altitude above them, with a rod in his hand, and gives
them to believe that he is Moses, and exhorts them to de-
list from the madness of expecting the Messiah even there,
fiince Christ, who governs them and all other men, is the
Messiah: he says, that he knows it to be so, and also, that
when, he was in the world, he had some knowledge con-
cerning Christ. On hearing this, they retire; the chief
part of them forgetting, and only a few retaining it. They
who do retain it, are sent to synagogues, which are com-
posed of converted Jews, and are there instructed; and if
they receive instruction, they have new garments given
them in place of their old tattered ones, and are presented
with a neatly-written copy of the Word, and with a dwelling
in a not unbeautiful city. But they who are not receptive,
are cast down into the hells, beneath the great tract which
the Jews inhabit; many also are cast into forests and into
deserts, where they live in the commission of mutual rob-
beries.
81. In the spiritual world, as in the natural, they traffic
with various articles, especially with precious stones, which,
by unknown ways, they procure for themselves from heaven,
where precious stones exist in abundance. The reason of
their trade in precious stones is, that they read the Word
in its original language, and hold the sense of its letter sa-
cred, and precious stones correspond to the sense of the
letter of the Word. On the subject of this correspondence,
see THE Doctrine op the New Jerusalem concerning
THE Sacred Scripture, n. 42 to 45. They sell their
precious stones to the Gentiles who encircle them in the
northern quarter. They have the art, too, of producing
imitations, and of making others fancy them genuine; but
they who do so, are heavily fined by their governors.
CONTINUATION OF THE SHillTUAL WORLD. lOd
82. The Jews are less aware than any other people of
their being in the spiritual world, believing, that they are
still in the natural world. The reason is, that they are
wholly external men, and do not think at all of their religion
from the inward. On this account, moreover, they speak of
the Messiah, just as they did in the world, saying, for ex-
ample, that he will come with David, and will go before
them glittering with diadems, and introduce them into the
land of Canaan; and that in the way, by lifting his rod, he
will dry up the rivers they are to pass; and that Christians,
whom privately they call Gentiles, will then lay hold of the
skirts of their garments, and humbly entreat to be allowed
to accompany them, and, that they will receive the rich ac-
cording to their wealth, and that even the rich are to serve
them. For they are unwilling to know, that the land of
Canaan in the Word, means the church, and Jerusalem^
the church as to doctrine; and hence, that Jews mean all
those who will be of the Lord's church. That such is the
meaning of Jews in the Word, may be seen in the Doc-
trine CONCERNING THE Sacred Scripture, n. 51. When
they are asked, whether they believe that they, too, are to
enter the land of Canaan, they reply, that they shall then
descend into it. When it is observed, that this land cannot
possibly hold them all, they reply, that it will then be enlarg-
ed. When they are told, that they know neither the site
of Bethlehem, nor who the stock of David is, they say,
that it is known to the Messiah who is to come. When
asked, how the Messiah, the Son of Jehovah, can dwell
with such wicked people, they reply, that they are not
wicked. When they are reminded, that Moses describes
them in his song (Deuteronomy xxxii.) as the worst of na-
tions, they answer, that Moses at that time was angry, be-
cause of his approaching decease. But when they are told,
that Moses wrote it by the command of Jehovah, they are
silent, and go away to consult about the matter. When it
is said, that they took their origin from a Canaanite, and
from the whoredom of Judah with his daughter-in-law,
(Genesis xxxviii.) they are enraged, and say, that it suffices
them to be descended from Abraham. When they are told,
that within the Word there is a spiritual sense, which treats
of Christ alone, they reply, that it is not so, but that within
the Word there is nothing but gold; not to mention other
particulars.
110 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
OF THE QUAKERS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
83. Separated from all others, there are enthusiastic
spirits, who are so grossly stupid, as to believe themselves
to be the Holy Spirit. When Quakerism commenced, these
spirits, being drawn out as it were from encircling forests
where they were wandering, obsessed many, infusing into
the persons thus obsessed a persuasion that they were
moved by the holy spirit ; and forasnriuch as they had sensi-
ble perception of an influx, they became so completely filled
with this kind of religiosity, that they believed themselves
more enlightened and holier than the rest of mankind; on
which account, moreover, it was impossible to induce them
to relinquish their persuasion. They who have confirmed
themselves therein, enter on a similar enthusiasm afler death,
and are separated from the rest, and sent away to their like
in forests, where, at a distance, they have the appearance
of wild swine. But they who have not so confirmed them-
selves, are bound, separately from the others, to a place like
a desert, in the extreme borders of the southern quarter,
where they have caves for their places of worship.
84. When the former enthusiastic spirits were removed
from them, the quaking of their bodies, which these spirits
had occasioned, ceased, and they now feel a motion to the
lefl. It was shewn me, that ever since the rise of Quaker-
ism, they have gone on successively from bad to worse, and
at length, by command of their holy spirit, into abomina-
tions, which they divulge to no one. I conversed with the
founder of their persuasion, as well as with Penn, who told
me, that they had no part in such things. But they who
perpetrate them are sent down afler death into a dark place,
where they sit in corners, appearing like the dregs of oil.
85. Inasmuch as they have rejected the two Sacraments,
of Baptism and the Holy Supper, and still read the Word,
and preach the Lord, and speak from the obsession of en-
thusiastic spirits, and thus commix the sanctities of the
Word with truths profaned, therefore no society is formed
of them in the spiritual world, but afler being divided from
their companions, and roaming hither and thither, they are
dispersed, and are gathered into the before-mentioned de-
sert.
OF THE MORAVIANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
86. I HAVE had much conversation with the people called
I
CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITITAL WORLD. Ill
Moravians, or Heernhutters. They appeared at first, in a
valley not far from the Jews; but after being examined and
detected, were conveyed away to uninhabited places. On
examining them it was found, that they were cunning in the
art of conciliation, saying, that they were the remains of
the Apostolic Church, and that therefore they salute each
other as brethren, and those who receive the more internal
of their mysteries, as mothers; also, that they teach faith
better than the rest of mankind, and love the Lord, because
He endured the cross, calling Him the Lamb, and the Throne
of Grace ; with other like expressions, by the use of which
they lead men to believe, that the true Christian church is
among them. They examine those who listen to their
smooth harangues, as to whether they may safely entrust
them with their mysteries; xwhich they conceal or reveal
accordingly ; endeavoring in the latter case, by admonitions,
and even by threats, to prevent the betrayal of their secret
doctrine concerning the Lord.
, 87. The Moravians having acted in a similar manner in
the spiritual world, when yet it was perceptible that their in-
ward thoughts were contrary to their actions; therefore, in
order to make this apparent, they were admitted into the
ultimate heaven; but not sustaining the sphere of the char-
ity and derivative faith of the angels there, they fled away.
Afterwards, because in the world they believed, that they
alone would be alive, and would enter the third heaven
they were carried up into this heaven also, but on
perceiving its sphere of love to the Lord, they were
seized with anguish of heart, and began to suffer inward
tortures, and to move convulsively, like persons in the ago-
ny of death, and therefore cast themselves headlong thence.
In this manner it was first made apparent, that inwardly,
they had cherished nothing of charity to the neighbor, and
nothing of love to the Lord. They were aflerwards sent to
those, whose duty it is to examine the interiors of the
thoughts, and these spirits declared of them, that they slight
the Lord, that their rejection of the life of charity amounts
to abhorrence, and that they make out that the Word of the
Old Testament is useless, and despise the Evangelists; only
of their good pleasure, selecting from Paul, whatever is
said of faith alone: and that these are their mysteries, which
they conceal from the world.
88. As soon as it became apparent that they merely ac-
knowledged the Lord as the Arians do, despise the Word
of the Prophets and Evangelists, and hold a life of charity
in abhorrence, when yet these three things are, as it were,
10
112 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
the pillars oii which the universal heaven is supported; then
jthey, who at once had a knowledge of, and a belief in, their
mysteries, were adjudged Anti-Christs, who reject the three
essentials of the Christian church, namely, the Divinity of
the Lord, the Word, and Charity, and were banished from
the Christian world, into a desert in the confine of the
southern quarter near the region of the Quakers.
89. When Zinzendorf first entered the spiritual world
after his decease, and was permitted to speak as he used to
speak in the world, I heard him solemnly asserting, that he
knew the mysteries of heaven, and that no one enters heaven
who is not of his doctrine; and also, that they who do
good works for the sake of salvation, are utterly damned,
and that he would rather admit Atheists into his congrega-
tion than such. The Lord, he said, was adopted by God
the Father as His Son, because he endured the cross, and
that still he was a mere man. When it was observed to
him, that the Lord was conceived by God the Father, he
replied, that he thought of that matter as he chose: not
daring to speak out as the Jews do. Moreover, I have per-
ceived many scandals from his followers, when I have been
reading the Evangelists.
They say, that they have a sensation, and, from this sen-
sation, an interior confirmation of their dogmas. But it was
shewn them, that the sensation proceeds from visionary
spirits, who confirm a man in all his religious notions, and
enter into closer conjunction with those, who, like the Mora-
vians, are fond of their religion, and frequently have it in
their thoughts. These spirits, moreover, conversed with
them, and they mutually recognised each other.
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